


Changes

by 41d3n



Series: Transitions [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Episode AU: 2006 Xmas The Runaway Bride, Episode AU: s02e12 Army of Ghosts, Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday, Episode Fix-It: s02e13 Doomsday, Episode: 2006 Xmas The Runaway Bride, Episode: s02e12 Army of Ghosts, Episode: s02e13 Doomsday, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday, Romance, Trans Male Character, trans masc!Rose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:00:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 34,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26139295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/41d3n/pseuds/41d3n
Summary: The storm has arrived, but will the Doctor and Ryan make it through?The second story in the Transitions series. Follows the events of Army of Ghosts, Doomsday and The Runaway Bride.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Transitions [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1889383
Comments: 37
Kudos: 40
Collections: Don't Wanna Get Rid Of You, Just.... So cute..., Stuck Like Glue





	1. Army of Ghosts: Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, story number 2. I wasn't sure whether to split up this episode or not, as Rose doesn't have much screen-time, but I've nearly finished writing Army of Ghosts and it was getting kinda long, so I've split it here. Enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: most of the dialogue was written by the writers of Doctor Who.  
> CW: Homophobic language (it only appears right at the start, nowhere else in this chapter). And more generally for swearing, throughout the story.

Ryan stepped out of the TARDIS, clutching a rucksack. The Doctor had promised a trip back to modern day London, and it seemed he had kept that promise, as Ryan recognised the playpark they were in as the one next to the Powell Estate. He grinned as he threw his rucksack onto his shoulders; the Doctor exited the TARDIS after him and shut the door. They silently set off on the quick walk to Bucknall House. The Doctor held his hand out for Ryan to take – which he did – and let their arms swing together.

As they walked across the estate, chatting, Ryan noticed a couple of teenage boys looking at them and smirking.

“Oi! Faggots!” hollered one of the teenagers, his friend howling with laughter. Ryan stiffened and felt himself begin to panic.

“Just ignore them,” the Doctor murmured, tugging Ryan closer to him. The Doctor dropped his hand once they reached the door to Bucknall House, opening it and following Ryan through.

***

“Mum! It’s us, we’re back!” Ryan shouted as he entered the flat.

“Oh, I don’t know why you bother with that phone, you never use it!” Jackie scolded. Ryan pulled her into a hug and noticed the Doctor try to slip past them. Unfortunately for him, Jackie noticed as well.

“No, you don’t! Come here!” Jackie insisted, grabbing the Doctor. Ryan smiled at the Doctor’s weak protests - but felt sorry for him as he was kissed repeatedly and was squeezed tightly in a bone-crushing hug.

“Hang on,” Jackie said suddenly, giving the Doctor an opportunity to wriggle out of the hug. “What’s happened to your voice? Oh my god, are you ill?”

“Vocal mutation,” said the Doctor, as if that explained it. “Growth of the larynx with lengthening and thickening of the vocal folds.”

“You what?”

“He means my voice is breaking, Mum,” Ryan said. “I started testosterone injections four weeks ago.”

Jackie’s jaw dropped. “Is that safe?”

“Yeah, it’s fine Mum.”

Jackie hesitated, then hugged Ryan tightly. “Congratulations.”

“Thank – thank you,” Ryan awkwardly mumbled as he pulled back. He groaned as he pulled the heavy rucksack off his back and dropped it into Jackie’s awaiting arms.

“I’ve got loads of washing for ya, and,” he said, digging through his pocket for a small golden object, then presented it to Jackie. “I got you this. It’s from the market on this asteroid bazaar. It’s made of, erm, what’s it called?” he asked, looking over his shoulder.

“Bazoolium,” the Doctor replied, looking up from the magazine he was flipping through.

“Bazoolium,” he repeated. “When it gets cold, yeah, it means it’s gonna rain. When it’s hot, it’s gonna be sunny. You can use it to tell the weather!”

Jackie nodded. “I’ve got a surprise for you an’ all.”

Ryan sighed. “Oh, I get her Bazoolium, she doesn’t even say thanks,” he said sarcastically, tossing the Bazoolium between his hands.

“Guess who’s coming to visit? You’re just in time, he’ll be here at ten past. Who do you think it is?”

Ryan shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Oh go on, guess,” Jackie insisted.

“No, I hate guessing, just tell me.”

“It’s your Grandad.” Ryan’s eyes widened. “Grandad Prentice. He’s on his way, any minute. Right, cup of tea,” Jackie said nonchalantly, heading into the kitchen, as if she hadn’t said something that should be impossible.

“She’s gone mad…”

He heard the Doctor beside him. “Tell me something new.” Rude.

“Grandad Prentice, that’s her dad,” he whispered. “But he died, like, ten years ago. Oh my god, she’s lost it.” He moved to the kitchen doorway. “Mum!” Jackie turned away from the kettle. “What you just said about Grandad…”

“Any second now,” Jackie said excitedly.

Ryan faked a smile and nodded. “But he passed away. His heart gave out. D’you remember that?” he said softly.

“’Course I do!”

“Then how can he come back?” he questioned.

“Then why don’t you ask him yourself?” Jackie checked her watch. “Ten past. Here he comes.”

A strange, ghostly figure faded into the room, walking around the kitchen. Ryan dropped his jaw.

“Here we are then,” Jackie smiled. “Dad, say hello to Ryan. You’ve got a grandson now!”

The Doctor dashed out the flat and outside into the courtyard, Ryan closely following him.

“They’re everywhere,” the Doctor exclaimed. Around them, everyone was going about their usual business; carrying bags of shopping and playing ball games, whilst the ghosts were being ignored.

Ryan turned and spotted a ghost that was about to walk into the Doctor. “Doctor, look out!”

The Doctor inhaled deeply and pulled his shoulders up high as the ghost simply passed through him.

“You haven’t got long. Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes - they’re about to fade,” Jackie explained as Ryan continued to watch the ghosts.

“What do you mean, ‘shift’? Since when did ghosts have shifts? Since when did shifts have ghosts? What’s going on?” the Doctor asked impatiently.

“Ooh, he’s not happy when I know more than him, is he?”

“No one’s running or screaming or freaking out.”

Ryan frowned; the Doctor was right, he’d seen enough interactions between humans and alien life to know that was the typical reaction, and it was very odd that it seemed normal to everyone.

“Why should we?” asked Jackie. “Here we go, twelve minutes past.” On cue, the ghosts faded away. The Doctor and Jackie when back inside, with Ryan hesitantly following them.

***

The Doctor had settled on the floor, in front of the television. He was watching some new program called Ghostwatch, which Ryan had (unsurprisingly) never even heard of, let alone seen.

“What the hell’s going on?” the Doctor muttered as he flicked over to another channel, this time a weather report, but it was talking about ghosts rather than whether it was going to be sunny or not. On Channel 5, there was some talk show where a woman was confessing to having married a ghost. The Doctor continued to switch through channels, skipping through adverts, French news about something the President had said that day about the ghosts, an Indian report about ghosts around the Taj Mahal, and Japanese news where people had been welcoming the ghosts, cutting to a trio of Japanese teenagers who said that they loved ghosts. Finally, he settled on an omnibus edition of EastEnders.

“It’s all over the world…”

The Doctor watched a segment of Peggy Mitchell having a go at a ghost – Ryan knew that the Doctor had a soft spot for EastEnders (he would never admit to it) – before turning off the television and tossing the remote onto the coffee table.

“But when did it start?” the Doctor asked, leaning against an armchair.

Jackie leant forward, eager to explain. “Well, first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down- “

“No, I mean worldwide.”

“Oh, that was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning, and there they all were. Ghosts, everywhere. We all ran around screaming an’ that, whole planet was panicking. No sign of you, thank you very much.” She nodded at the Doctor. “But then it sort of sank in. It took us time to realise that we’re lucky.”

Ryan was still concerned, and he could tell the Doctor was too. “What makes you think it’s Grandad?” he asked.

“It just feels like him. There’s that smell, those old cigarettes. Can’t you smell it?”

Ryan shook his head. “I wish I could Mum, but I can’t.”

“Well, you’ve got to make an effort,” Jackie insisted. “You’ve got to want it, sweetheart.”

“The more you want it, the stronger it gets?” the Doctor inferred.

“Sort of, yeah.”

The Doctor scratched the back of his head. “Like a psychic link. ‘Course you want your old dad to be alive, but you’re wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in.”

“You’re spoiling it,” Jackie told him.

“I’m sorry Jackie, but there’s no smell, there’s no cigarettes. Just a memory.”

“If they’re not ghosts, what are they, then?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah, but they’re human!” Jackie protested. “You can see them, they look human!”

“She’s got a point, I mean, they’re all sort of blurred, but they’re definitely people,” Ryan added.

“Maybe not,” the Doctor mused. “They’re pressing themselves into the surface of the world, but a footprint doesn’t look like a boot.” He dashed off, presumably back to the TARDIS.

***

Ryan quickly bored of listening to Jackie talking to her friends on the phone. Noticing the headline on the front page of a newspaper, he grabbed it and went after the Doctor.

“According to the paper, they’ve elected a ghost as MP for Leeds Central,” he announced as he walked up the TARDIS ramp. He walked over to the console, lobbing the newspaper onto it and looked down to where the Doctor was crouched under the grating. “Now, don’t tell me you’re gonna sit back and do nothing.”

The Doctor jumped up, wearing a backpack and holding something that looked vaguely like a blaster. “Who ya gonna call?”

“Ghostbusters!” Ryan exclaimed.

“I ain’t afraid of no ghosts!” Ryan laughed at his antics and followed him out of the TARDIS.

Outside, the Doctor was placing brown cones on the ground in a triangular formation. “When’s the next shift?” he asked Jackie.

“Quarter to,” Jackie replied, looking at her watch. “But don’t go causing trouble. What’s that lot do?”

Ryan smiled to himself. Pretty much all the Doctor ever did was cause trouble, even if it was unintentional.

“Triangulates their point of origin,” the Doctor explained.

“I don’t suppose it’s the Gelth?” Ryan enquired.

“Nah. They were just coming through one little rift. This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet, like tracing paper.”

“You’re always doing this,” Jackie sneered. “Reducing it to science, why can’t it be real? Just think of it though. All the people we’ve lost, our families coming back home. Don’t you think it’s beautiful?”

The Doctor looked up from the cones he was setting up. “I think it’s horrific.” He took a reel of cable back into the TARDIS, not giving Jackie any time to argue back. “Ryan, give us a hand!”. Ryan sprinted into the TARDIS after him.

Inside, the Doctor plugged the cable into a port on the far side of the console.

He pointed at the monitor. “As soon as the cones are activated, if that line goes into the red, press that button there.” He indicated at a small button on the console, then pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his coat. “If it doesn’t stop, setting 15B, hold it against the port, eight seconds and stop.”

“15B, eight seconds,” Ryan repeated in understanding.

“If it goes into the blue, activate the deep scan on the left.”

“Hang on a minute, I know.” Ryan leant over the console and hovered his hand over a small button. “Is it that one?”

“Close.”

Ryan moved over to a large silver button. “That one?”

“Mmm, now you’ve just killed us,” said the Doctor lightly. Ryan laughed and brought his hand back a bit.

“Er, it’s that one?”

“Yep!” The Doctor turned to Jackie. “Now what have we got? Two minutes to go?”

Less than two minutes later, the Doctor was outside with the cones whilst Ryan was monitoring everything at the console.

“What’s the line doing?” the Doctor shouted.

“It’s alright, it’s holding!” Ryan yelled in reply.

“You even look like him,” Jackie commented dryly from over Ryan’s shoulder.

“How d’ya mean?” Ryan asked. He knew exactly what she meant. Not in physical appearance, but how he was holding himself, confidently working at the console. “Well, suppose I do, yeah.”

“You’ve changed so much. And I’m not talking about your gender thingy, that would have happened without him around. Eventually.”

“For the better?”

“I suppose,” Jackie breathed out.

Ryan turned around to look at her. “Mum, I used to work in a shop,” he said exasperatedly.

“I’ve worked in shops, what’s wrong with that?” Jackie countered.

Ryan shook his head. “No, I didn’t mean like that.”

“I know what you meant. What happens when I’m gone?” she said suddenly.

“Don’t talk like that,” Ryan replied, shocked.

“No, but really. When I’m dead and buried, you won’t have any reason to come back home. What happens then?”

“I don’t know.” It was true, Ryan didn’t know. Barely anyone on Earth knew of the life he lived. And now that Mickey was gone, the only proper connection he had to Earth was his mum. And when she was gone, who knows.

“Do you think you’ll ever settle down?”

“The Doctor never will, so I can’t. I’ll just keep on travelling.”

“And you’ll keep on changing. And in forty years time, fifty, there’ll be this man, this strange man walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. But he’s not Ryan Tyler. Not anymore. He’s not even human.”

Ryan briefly pondered over Jackie’s monologue. Sure, she had made some valid points. He’d already done the ‘walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth’ part. He would keep on changing. That was inevitable, like death and taxes. But not even human? He’d barely scraped through a GCSE in single-award science, and the biology module certainly didn’t cover anything like that.

Thankfully, the Doctor had chosen that moment to disturb his thoughts. “Here we go!”

Ryan turned his attention back to the monitor. “Scanner’s working! It says delta one six!”

“Come on then, you beauty!” he heard from outside. On the live video feed from the scanner, he could see a ghost struggling within an electrical pyramid encasing, whilst the Doctor fiddled with a device, his back to them. After less than a minute, the ghost disappeared and the Doctor gathered up his equipment and ran back into the TARDIS.

“I said so! Those ghosts are being forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track down the source! Allons-y!” And with that, the TARDIS rattled into dematerialisation, throwing the Doctor and Ryan backwards with the jump seat there to break their fall. They quickly recovered and the Doctor moved around the console, twisting dials and pressing buttons.

“I like that, allons-y. I should say allons-y more often. Allons-y. Look sharp, Ryan Tyler, allons-y!” the Doctor said as he moved back around to Ryan. “And then, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonso, ‘cos then I could say ‘Allons-y, Alonso!’ every time!” Ryan returned the Doctor’s happy grin. “You’re staring at me.”

“My mum’s still on board,” Ryan mouthed, barely audible. He watched the Doctor’s gaze slowly find Jackie.

“If we end up on Mars, I’m gonna kill you,” Jackie warned. Ryan smiled and nodded at the threat that the Doctor was taking at least semi-seriously - probably out of fear of being slapped into his next regeneration.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first scene was based off a deleted scene, which I wish they had kept as it was very cute. As always, thank you for reading, any feedback is welcome. The next chapter will be up very soon, probably tomorrow.


	2. Army of Ghosts: Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Managed to get chapter 2 up on the same day, but it was mostly done anyway. Hope you enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: most of the dialogue was written by the writers of Doctor Who.

They landed in what looked like some sort of warehouse, judging by the image displayed on the scanner. Almost immediately they were surrounded by soldiers aiming guns at them.

The Doctor sighed. “Ooh, there goes the advantage of surprise. Still, cuts to the chase. Stay in here, look after Jackie,” he ordered, walking to the door.

Ryan followed him. “I’m not looking after my mum!”

“Well, you brought her!”

“I was kidnapped!” Jackie added, not particularly helping either argument.

Sensing the Doctor was about to do something stupid, Ryan dashed in front of the doors before he got there.

“Doctor, they’ve got guns,” he said lowly.

“And I haven’t, which makes me the better person, don’t you think?” The Doctor placed his hands on Ryan’s waist and gently moved him out the way, not leaving room to argue. “They could shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine,” he finished as he slipped out the TARDIS.

Bloody moral high ground is no use if they actually shoot him, thought Ryan. He heard the shout of a soldier and guns cocking from outside. He moved to the door, in order to hear better and try to see anything out the window.

He heard a feminine voice, followed by some clapping. “ _Oh, how marvellous!_ ” The clapping got louder. “ _Superb. Happy day!_ ”

“ _Um. Thanks. Nice to meet you. I’m… the Doctor_.” Ryan could almost see the awkwardness painted on his face.

“ _Oh, I should say. Hooray!_ ” More clapping. Who the hell were these people?

“ _You… you’ve heard of me then?_ ”

“ _Well of course we have. And I have to say, if it wasn’t for you, none of us would be here_.” What the fuck had the Doctor done to have soldiers staring at him down their iron sights, then clapping barely seconds later. “ _The Doctor and the TARDIS, oh!_ ” Yet more clapping followed.

“ _And… and… and you are?”_

_“Oh, plenty of time for that. But according to the records, you’re not one for travelling alone. The Doctor and his companion, that’s the pattern, isn’t that right. There’s no point hiding anything. Not from us. So where is she?”_

She. Shit. That could make things difficult if the Doctor pulled him out.

Unbeknownst to Ryan, the Doctor thought the same thing.

“ _Yes, sorry, good point. She’s just a bit shy, that’s all_.” The Doctor glanced into the TARDIS and pulled out Jackie. “ _But here she is, Rose Tyler_.”

Ryan sucked in a breath. He didn’t like hearing the Doctor use his old name, but he decided to put it down to the Doctor wanting to use a fake name for his mother – just in case – and his old name happened to be the first thing that popped into the Doctor’s head. He would have to ask about it later.

“ _Hmm. She’s not the best I’ve ever had. Bit too blonde. Not too steady on her pins. Lot of that…”_ Ryan couldn’t tell what he was gesturing. _“And just last week, she stared into the heart of the Time Vortex and aged fifty-seven years, but she’ll do_.”

 _“I’m forty!_ ” he heard his mother exclaim.

“ _Deluded. Bless. I’ll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She’s very good at tea. Well, I say very good, I mean not bad. Well, I say not bad… anyway! Lead on! Allons-y! But not too fast, her ankle’s going_.”

“ _I’ll show you where my ankle’s going_ ,” Jackie hissed.

As they walked away, Ryan quickly moved to watch the scanner displayed on the monitor. He watched the retreating backs of the Doctor and his mother as they were followed by the soldiers.

Suddenly, the TARDIS jolted, but they weren’t taking off, instead it felt like the TARDIS was being lifted. Looking at the scanner again, they were now on the back of a pickup truck. The pickup truck drove into a more open area of the warehouse, where Ryan spotted the Doctor and his entourage. He went to the door and peered out, hoping to catch the Doctor’s eye. He did, and the Doctor gave him an almost imperceptible nod.

He knew that the Doctor had purposely left him in the TARDIS so that he would be able to have a poke around and investigate, without having others breathing down the back of his neck. So, that meant infiltration. And for infiltration, there was nothing more useful than the psychic paper. He turned, spotting the Doctor’s trench coat which had been flung over one the coral branches. Hopefully, he had left it in there.

Ryan fished around in a couple of pockets until he felt the soft leather wallet under his fingertips. He grinned to himself. Now he just had to wait.

***

Once he had seen on the scanner that the TARDIS had been placed and there was some kind of cover - namely an Ancient Egyptian coffin and something under a tarpaulin that may have been part of a spacecraft – Ryan crept out of the TARDIS, slowly shutting the door, wishing it wouldn’t do its stereotypical creak. He felt like that bald guy from one of Mickey’s Playstation games, except he wasn’t planning on assassination.

He looked around the side of the coffin, which would have put him in plain view of a couple of chatting soldiers. Not that way, then. Around the other side of the TARDIS, Ryan spied a lab coat abandoned on a table. A disguise would be very helpful – and very Agent 74, or whatever his name was. He quickly snatched up the coat and hastily put it on.

Ryan straightened his posture as he walked into the open. Confidence was the key; he’d seen the Doctor bluff his way through time and space, always with his head held high and carrying an air of authority.

He wandered aimlessly through the warehouse, around broken machinery and valuable artefacts, until he spotted a man in a lab coat who looked suspiciously familiar. But he couldn’t be. The man walked through a door that led out of the warehouse; Ryan picked up his pace so that he wouldn’t lose him.

Ryan weaved his way through the dimly lit corridors, until he spotted the man press his ID to a scanner next to a heavy-looking automatic door. He slowly walked to the door, kissing the psychic paper for luck, before pressing it to the scanner. The scanner beeped, and the door slid open.

He wandered into the room, taking in the sheer height of it. The far wall was covered in strange bronze panelling – in front of it a huge sphere was hovering. Ryan froze in front of it and swallowed. Something about it was just… wrong. He heard someone come up behind him.

“Can I help you?” asked a different man in a lab coat asked.

“I was just…” Ryan trailed off, pointing at the sphere.

“Try not to look. It does that to everyone.” He paused. “What do you want?” he asked, more assertively this time.

“Sorry… um…” Ryan hesitated. “They sent me from personnel. They said some sort of man had been taken prisoner, some sort of doctor.” He rubbed his cheek, hoping his lies were convincing. “I’m just checking the lines of communication. Did they tell you anything?”

“Can I see your authorisation?”

“Sure.” He smiled confidently, handing over the psychic paper.

The man flipped open the psychic paper and looked at it, smiling slightly.

“Well, that’s lucky. You see, everyone at Torchwood has at least a basic level of psychic training.” Ryan’s face fell. Shit. “This paper is blank. And you’re a fake.” He pressed a button on his earpiece. “Seal the room. Call security.”

Ryan heard the door shut behind him. Bollocks. He’d really gone and cocked this up.

He addressed the man that Ryan had followed. “Samuel? Can you check the door locks? He just walked right in.”

“Doing it now, sir.” Ryan snapped to look at Samuel. Except it was Mickey. The Doctor said that the walls between parallel worlds were sealed, so how the hell was Mickey here?

Mickey raised his eyebrows at Ryan in confusion, before hastily putting his finger to his lips and giving Ryan a quick thumbs up.

“Well, if you’d like to take a seat.”

Ryan was led in front of a laptop, where the man started a video call to an important looking woman, probably the woman who greeted the Doctor earlier.

“Yvonne, I think you should see this. We’ve got a visitor. I don’t know who he is, but funnily enough, he arrived at the same time as the Doctor.”

Ryan saw the woman, Yvonne, move her laptop around. “ _He one of yours?_ ”

He leant closer to the laptop, and made out the Doctor’s lounging form, his Converse-clad feet up on the desk. The Doctor shook his head. “ _Never seen him before in my life,_ ” he deadpanned.

“Good, then we can have him shot.”

The Doctor groaned slightly, pulling himself upright. “ _Oh, alright, then, it was worth a try. That’s… that’s Ryan Tyler_.”

“Sorry,” Ryan said. “Hello…” He gave a small wave, which the Doctor returned.

“ _Well, if he’s Ryan Tyler, then is she still Rose Tyler? Because those names are a bit too similar._ ”

Ryan heard the faint voice of his mum. “ _I’m Jackie. I’m his mother_.”

“ _Oh, you travel with his mother?_ ”

“ _He kidnapped me!_ ”

“ _Please, when Torchwood comes to write my complete history, don’t tell people I travelled through time and space with his mother_ ,” the Doctor said.

Ryan heard a laugh, followed by a ‘charming’ from Jackie.

“ _I’ve got a reputation to uphold_ ,” the Doctor protested, weakly.

Ryan heard a commotion through the speakers. “What’s going on?” he asked the man – Rajesh.

“I don’t know, seems we’re going into ghost shift…” He put a finger to his earpiece. “Yvonne, I thought you said the next ghost shift was cancelled. What’s going on? Yvonne?”

Suddenly there was a loud crash which shook the room, followed by a metallic shaking which seemed to come from the sphere. Rajesh took off towards it, Ryan and Mickey followed. There was another loud crash and the sphere visibly shook.

“It’s active…” Unexpectedly, a lot of machines started beeping and flashing. Rajesh ran over to a computer terminal. “We’ve got a problem down here. Yvonne, can you hear me?” The sphere continued to vibrate faster and faster. “Yvonne, for God’s sake, the sphere is active! The readings are going wild! It’s got weight, it’s got mass, an electromagnetic field! It exists!”

Ryan flinched as he heard the door lock. It had already been locked, so he guessed it was an extra layer of security.

“The door’s sealed,” Rajesh continued, panic evident in his voice. “Automatic quarantine. We… we can’t get out!”

“I know this isn’t the best time,” Mickey began, “but what’s with the look? And the voice?”

“Long story,” replied Ryan. “I’ll tell you later. If there is a later…”

“There will be, we’ve beaten them before and we can beat them again; that’s why I’m here. The fight goes on.”

“The fight against what?”

“What do you think?”

The sphere shook three times more, each time more and more aggressively.

“We had them beaten, but then they escaped. The Cybermen just vanished,” Mickey explained, and the sphere shook even louder. “They found their way through to this world, but so did we.”

“The Doctor said that was impossible.”

“Yeah, it’s not the first time he’s been wrong.”

“What’s inside that sphere?”

“No one knows. Cyber Leader, Cyber King, Emperor of the Cybermen. Whatever it is, he’s dead meat.” Mickey grinned.

“It’s good to see you,” Ryan added, almost as an afterthought.

“Yeah, it’s good to see you too.”

The sphere caused the room to shake more and more, and Ryan heard Rajesh struggling.

“Come on, I need help down here! I need…” Rajesh was cut off by a metallic screeching which they hadn’t heard before. Mickey threw off his lab coat and pulled off his earpiece.

“Here we go…”

The sphere expanded and broke apart into segments, which slowly rolled down.

“I know what’s in there and I’m ready for them, I’ve got just the thing.” Mickey moved towards the sphere and pulled out a huge gun from under the table and carried it back over, aiming at the sphere. “This is gonna blast them to hell.”

“Samuel? What are you doing?” questioned Rajesh.

“The name’s Mickey. Mickey Smith. Defending the Earth!” He cocked the gun.

Ryan squinted at the bright light emitting from the sphere. Then a few figures emerged from it, except they weren’t humanoid.

“That’s not Cybermen,” said Mickey.

It was Daleks. Four of them, a black one in the centre, while the others were the usual bronze. They had something else with them, roughly Dalek-sized, but Ryan had no idea what it was.

“Oh my god…” Ryan breathed. They all instinctively backed away as the Daleks hovered to the ground.

“LOCATION: EARTH. LIFE FORMS DETECTED,” barked the black Dalek.

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, I love the last ten minutes of this episode. The Dalek reveal at the end blew my mind as a kid and it still holds up. Now I have to watch Doomsday and try not to cry. Oh well. And yes, that was a reference to Hitman. Next chapter will probably be up in the next few days, got no idea when :P


	3. Doomsday: Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think I've ever used caps lock so much in my life. And yeah, I did cry when I rewatched Doomsday :P
> 
> Disclaimer: most of the dialogue was written by the writers of Doctor Who.

“Daleks!” Ryan shouted. That shut them up. “You’re called Daleks!”

Time for another of the Doctor’s tricks; talking to keep yourself alive. He was going to have to be very careful with his choice of words. He walked forwards, staring the black Dalek in the eye. It stared back, cold, unmoving.

“I know your name.” He shrugged off the lab coat. “Think about it – how can I know that? A human, who knows about the Daleks. And the Time War.” None of the Daleks reacted to that titbit, contrary to what Ryan was expecting. “If you wanna know how, then keep us alive. That’s all I’m asking. Me and my friends.”

“Yeah, Daleks,” Mickey piped up. The black Dalek turned to look at him. “Time War. Me too.”

“Yeah, and me.” Rajesh added.

The black Dalek turned back to Ryan. “YOU WILL BE NECESSARY.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat as the Dalek looked behind to one of its bronze counterparts.

“REPORT! WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE GENESIS ARK?”

Well, I guess that thing is a Genesis Ark then, whatever the fuck that is, thought Ryan.

“STATUS: HIBERNATION,” replied the bronze Dalek.

“COMMENCE AWAKENING. THE GENESIS ARK MUST BE PROTECTED ABOVE ALL ELSE!”

The bronze Dalek glided over to the Genesis Ark and placed its suction arm over a node on it.

“But, Daleks… you said they were all dead,” Mickey said quietly.

Ryan turned to him. “Never mind that. What the hell’s a Genesis Ark?”

They were interrupted by the black Dalek. “WHICH OF YOU IS LEAST IMPORTANT?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ryan asked, though he had a feeling he knew what it entailed.

“WHICH OF YOU IS LEAST IMPORTANT?” the Dalek reiterated. Helpful.

“No, we don’t work like that. None of us,” Ryan countered, shaking his head.

“DESIGNATE THE LEAST IMPORTANT!”

“This is my responsibility,” said Rajesh, lowly.

Ryan made a feeble attempt at holding Rajesh back. “No, don’t!” he exclaimed. Rajesh ignored him and approached the Daleks.

“I, er, I represent the Torchwood Institute. Anything you need, you come through me. Leave these two alone.”

“YOU WILL KNEEL!”

“What for?”

“KNEEL!” demanded the black Dalek.

Rajesh looked around at all the Daleks surrounding him and lowered himself to the ground.

“THE DALEKS NEED INFORMATION ABOUT CURRENT EARTH HISTORY!”

“Yeah, well I can give you a certain amount of intelligence, but nothing that will compromise homeland security- “

“SPEECH IS NOT NECESSARY; WE WILL EXTRACT BRAINWAVES!”

The three Daleks glided towards Rajesh, extending their suction arms. He was frozen in fear, unable to attempt escape.

“Don’t! I’ll – I’ll tell you everything you need! No! No!” His begging was replaced by screams as the Daleks extended their suction cups to cover Rajesh’s face. Mickey moved to stop them, but Ryan held him back, burying his face in Mickey’s shoulder.

The Daleks released Rajesh, letting his body drop to the floor. Dust dispersed from his dried, shrivelled head as it made impact – it had to be one of the most horrific things Ryan had ever seen and he felt sick.

“HIS MIND SPOKE OF A SECOND SPECIES INVADING EARTH, INFECTED BY THE SUPERSTITION OF GHOSTS!” the black Dalek announced.

Ryan pulled away from Mickey. “You didn’t need to kill him!”

“NEITHER DID WE NEED HIM ALIVE,” responded one of the bronze Daleks.

“DALEK THAY, INVESTIGATE OUTSIDE!” ordered the black Dalek. Daleks didn’t have names, so what was up with that, Ryan asked himself. And what the hell was outside?

“I OBEY!” replied the same bronze Dalek, Dalek Thay, and it left the room.

“ESTABLISH VISUAL CONTACT. LOWER COMMUNICATIONS BARRIER.”

A blue-tinted projection appeared on the bronze panelled wall; the centre was distorted like a fisheye lens. So that was how the Daleks saw the universe. Cold, lacking colour.

Ryan could hear a familiar, rhythmic marching, which grew louder and louder. He gasped as the Dalek focused on two approaching Cybermen.

“IDENTIFY YOURSELVES!” ordered Dalek Thay.

“YOU WILL IDENTIFY FIRST.”

“STATE YOUR IDENTITY!”

“YOU WILL IDENTIFY FIRST.”

“IDENTIFY!”

“It’s like Stephen Hawking meets the speaking clock,” Mickey joked. Ryan didn’t laugh, though if the situation wasn’t potentially world-ending, it would have been pretty funny.

“- TO BE LOGICAL, YOU WILL MODIFY.”

“DALEKS DO NOT TAKE ORDERS!”

“YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED AS DALEKS.” Ryan smirked, trying not to laugh. Okay, it was pretty funny.

“OUTLINE RESEMBLES THE INFERIOR SPECIES KNOWN AS CYBERMEN!” barked the black Dalek.

Ryan’s phone started to ring, thankfully the Daleks with them were too focused on the Cybermen to notice. He glanced at the screen and answered, though didn’t bring it to his ear. Him answering would let his mother - or more likely, the Doctor - know he was still alive.

“WE MUST PROTECT THE GENESIS ARK!” insisted one of the other bronze Daleks.

“OUR SPECIES ARE SIMILAR, THOUGH YOUR DESIGN IS INELEGANT.”

“DALEKS HAVE NO CONCEPT OF ELEGANCE.”

“THIS IS OBVIOUS. BUT CONSIDER, OUR TECHNOLOGIES ARE COMPATIBLE. CYBERMEN PLUS DALEKS, TOGETHER, WE COULD UPGRADE THE UNIVERSE.”

“YOU PROPOSE AN ALLIANCE?”

“THIS IS CORRECT.” Shit, that could be very bad. Worse than bad, even.

“REQUEST DENIED.” Ryan almost breathed a sigh of relief. Though the Cybermen weren’t as happy. They pointed their arm-mounted guns (which Ryan was fairly certain they didn’t have when they were in the parallel universe) at the Dalek.

“HOSTILE ELEMENTS WILL BE DELETED.” The Cybermen fired shots on the Dalek, but they didn’t seem to affect it.

“EXTERMINATE!” The Cybermen screamed as they were hit, then they fell to the ground, unceremoniously.

Suddenly, the projected image changed to one of a single Cyberman, in full colour this time, rather than through the lens of a Dalek.

“DALEKS, BE WARNED. YOU HAVE DECLARED WAR UPON THE CYBERMEN.” This was nearly as bad as them being allies – even if they managed to wipe each other out, thousands – or even potentially, millions – of people would be slaughtered in the crossfire.

“THIS IS NOT WAR; THIS IS PEST CONTROL!”

“WE HAVE FIVE MILLION CYBERMEN. HOW MANY ARE YOU?”

“FOUR.”

“YOU WOULD DESTROY THE CYBERMEN WITH FOUR DALEKS?”

“WE WOULD DESTROY THE CYBERMEN WITH ONE DALEK!”

Ryan swallowed; it seemed they wouldn’t wipe each other out.

“YOU ARE SUPERIOR IN ONLY ONE RESPECT.”

“WHAT IS THAT?” demanded the Cyberman.

“YOU ARE BETTER AT DYING. RAISE COMMUNICATIONS BARRIER.”

Before the projection disappeared, Ryan sucked in a breath as he caught a glimpse of the Doctor behind the Cyberman.

“WAIT!” interrupted one of the bronze Daleks. “REWIND IMAGE BY NINE RELS. IDENTIFY GRID SEVEN GAMMA FRAME!”

The image zoomed in on the Doctor. “THIS MALE REGISTERS AS ENEMY!”

The black Dalek turned to Ryan; its suction arm poised. “THE ANOMALY’S HEARTBEAT HAS INCREASED!”

Ryan heard Mickey snort beside him.

“IDENTIFY HIM!” the black Dalek ordered.

“All right, then. If you really wanna know. That’s the Doctor.” The Daleks backed away at that last word – almost instinctively. “Five million Cybermen: easy. One Doctor: now you’re scared,” Ryan taunted.

“CYBER THREAT IRRELEVANT,” announced Dalek Thay as it re-entered the room. “CONCENTRATE ON THE GENESIS ARK!”

Ryan and Mickey were forced to back into a corner as the four Daleks circled the Genesis Ark, each attaching itself to a node.

“Why are we being kept alive?” Mickey quietly asked.

Ryan thought for a moment. “They might need me.”

“What? What is it?”

Ryan didn’t answer that question. He ran his fingers through his short locks. This definitely wasn’t the right time to be doing this, but he may as well bite the bullet and get it over with. He took a deep breath.

“Um, like I said before, long story, but… my name is Ryan now.”

Mickey slowly nodded and gave a slight smile. “Okay, well that explains things. And I’m guessing it’s not the best time for this conversation.”

“Yeah… later.” Ryan was glad that went the way it did – it could have been so much worse.

Mickey turned his back to the Daleks and pulled out a device with a big yellow button on it.

“I could transport out of here, but it only carries one, and I’m not leaving you. I’m not that kind of man. Besides, I can’t think what the Daleks need with me. I’m nothing to them.”

Ryan shook his head, looking over Mickey’s shoulder. “You could be. Whatever’s inside that Ark is waking up, and I’ve seen this happen before.” He recounted his experience in Van Statten’s bunker. “The first time I saw a Dalek, it was broken. It was dying. But I touched it. The moment I did that, I brought it back to life. You see, the Doctor said when you travel in time in the TARDIS, you soak up all this, um, background radiation. It’s harmless; it’s just there. But in the Time War, the Daleks evolved so they could use it as a power supply. If the Daleks have got something inside that thing, and it needs waking up…”

“They need you,” Mickey interjected.

“You’ve travelled in time. Either one of us would do…”

“But why would they build something they can’t open themselves?”

Ryan shrugged.

“THE TECHNOLOGY IS STOLEN,” interrupted the black Dalek, looking at them. “THE ARK IS NOT OF DALEK DESIGN.”

“Then who built it?” Ryan asked.

“THE TIME LORDS. THIS IS ALL THAT SURVIVES OF THEIR HOME WORLD!”

“What’s inside?”

“THE FUTURE!”

***

_One universe away…_

“I’ve got to get back! Ryan is in danger, and his mother!” the Doctor shouted.

Pete Tyler announced his arrival. “I’d assume that’d be Jackie. My wife in a parallel universe. Though who the hell is Ryan?”

The Doctor stilled. Damn his stupid gob. He was going to have to say something. He knew he didn’t have the right to be saying this, he knew he’d be breaking Ryan’s trust: the trust that he cherished and never should have taken advantage of (he told himself he wouldn’t do that anymore), the trust that he’d been so happy to earn, the trust that made them who they were, together. Ryan had always forgiven him, and he hoped, prayed, that he would forgive him again, this time.

“He’s… he’s who Rose is now.” The Doctor inwardly winced at his own words; he could have phrased that so much better. Ryan deserved so much better.

Pete frowned. “That’s what Mickey went ahead for?”

The Doctor scowled at him. How dare he talk about Ryan like that - hang on, Mickey?

“He’s your son. Mickey did explain that to you, right? Who Ryan is?”

“The child of a dead man,” Pete replied coldly, his face painted with apathy that could easily turn into malice. “Why should I give a damn?”

***

“FINAL STAGE OF AWAKENING!”

“YOUR HANDPRINT WILL OPEN THE ARK,” ordered the black Dalek.

Ryan dismissed it. “Well tough, ‘cos I’m not doing it.”

“OBEY, OR THE MALE WILL DIE!”

Ryan turned and walked away. “I can’t let them.”

“Ro – Ryan, don’t!” Mickey said insistently.

“PLACE YOUR HAND UPON THE CASKET!”

Ryan twisted around. “All right!” he snapped. He considered his options. “You’re gonna kill us anyway, so what the hell…” He paused, then remembered that he still had an ace up his sleeve. Time for round two of deploying the Doctor’s diversionary tactics.

“If you, erm… escaped the Time War, don’t you want to know what happened?” he said, as teasingly as he dared.

“PLACE YOUR HAND…” began the black Dalek, but Ryan cut in.

“What happened to the Emperor?” he said cockily.

“THE EMPEROR… SURVIVED?” The Dalek sounded surprised, or as surprised as a creature whose only purpose was to hate could.

“’Til he met me.” Ryan desperately recalled what little the Doctor had told him about the Game Station. “’Cos if these are gonna be my last words, then you’re gonna listen.” He stared down the Dalek’s eyestalk, unblinking. “I met the Emperor, and I took the Time Vortex and poured it into his head and turned him into dust.” He raised his eyebrows. “Do you get that? The God of all Daleks, and I destroyed him. Ha!”

“YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!”

“Oh, now, hold on, wait a minute!” Ryan turned and there he was, the Doctor. How long had he been waiting there? Unless the Time Lord really did have his timings on point.

The Doctor swaggered into the room, much to the Daleks’ disdain.

“ALERT! ALERT! YOU ARE THE DOCTOR!”

“SENSORS DETECT HE IS UNARMED!”

“That’s me, always,” he said, smiling.

“THEN YOU ARE POWERLESS!”

“Not me, never!” The Doctor pulled off a pair of 3D glasses; Ryan noticed he had been wearing them earlier. “How are you?”

Ryan grinned. “Oh! Same old, y’know!”

“Good. And Micketty-Mick-Mickey! Nice to see ya!” the Doctor exclaimed as he offered his fist to Mickey, which he returned.

“And you, boss.”

“SOCIAL INTERACTION WILL CEASE!” ordered a bronze Dalek.

The black Dalek wanted answers. “HOW DID YOU SURVIVE THE TIME WAR?”

All the Daleks were now fully focused on the Doctor.

“By fighting. On the front line. I was there at the Fall of Arcadia. Some day I might even come to terms with that. But you lot ran away!”

“WE HAD TO SURVIVE!”

“The last four Daleks in existence.” He looked around at them. “So, what’s so special about you?”

“Doctor, they’ve got names,” Ryan interjected. “I mean, Daleks don’t have names, do they? But one of them said they were…”

“DALEK THAY!”

“DALEK SEC!”

“DALEK JAST!”

“DALEK CAAN!”

Understanding dawned on the Doctor’s face. “So that’s it! At last! The Cult of Skaro; I thought you were just a legend.”

“Who are they?” Ryan asked.

“A secret order.” The Doctor started to walk around each Dalek in turn. “Above and beyond the Emperor himself. Their job was to imagine. Think as the enemy thinks. Even dare to have names. All to find new ways of killing.”

“But that thing, they said it was yours,” Mickey stated. “I mean, Time Lords, they built it – what does it do?”

The Doctor shrugged. “I dunno, never seen it before.”

“But it’s… Time Lord,” Ryan prompted.

“Both sides had secrets,” he said to Ryan. “What is it? What have you done?” he asked Dalek Sec.

“TIME LORD SCIENCE WILL RESTORE DALEK SUPREMACY!”

The Doctor scowled, shaking his head. “What does that mean? What sort of Time Lord science? What do you mean?”

“They said one touch from a time traveller will wake it up,” added Ryan.

“Technology using the one thing a Dalek can’t do… touch,” the Doctor spat out. He bent to look Dalek Sec in the eye. “Sealed inside your casing, not feeling anything, ever. From birth to death, locked inside a cold, metal cage. Completely alone. That explains your voice. No wonder you scream.”

Dalek Sec had had enough of the Doctor’s taunts. “THE DOCTOR WILL OPEN THE ARK!”

The Doctor backed away, chuckling darkly. “The Doctor will not,” he scoffed.

“YOU HAVE NO WAY OF RESISTING!”

“Well, you got me there, although.” He paused to extract his sonic from his pocket. “There is always this.”

“A SONIC PROBE?”

“That’s screwdriver,” he replied, enunciating the last word.

“IT IS HARMLESS!”

“Oh yes! Harmless is just the word. That’s why I like it! Doesn’t kill, doesn’t wound, doesn’t maim, but I’ll tell you what it does do. It is very good at opening doors.”

And then everything happened all at once.

With a buzz of the sonic screwdriver, the doors were blasted off, the room was swarmed by Cybermen with a man in combat gear. Was that Jake? The air was filled with bullets and energy blasts, and the shouts of Daleks and Cybermen.

“Ryan, get out!” the Doctor yelled. Ryan did just that. He got up from the ground, but kept low, dodging shots. He slipped, but spotted Pete on the sidelines, crouching low.

“Dad?”

Pete glanced at Ryan and glared, before shrugging and offering him a hand.

“Come on.” He pulled Ryan from the room.

The Doctor followed them quickly after, thankfully unscathed, but Mickey was still in there. He had managed to grab his gun from earlier and had joined the fight.

“Mickey, come on!” Ryan shouted. He watched anxiously as Mickey backed into a Cyberman, then fell onto the Genesis Ark, leaving his handprint burned on the surface. He stumbled out of the room, Jake following him as the Doctor sonicked the remains of the door shut.

“Jake, protect the stairwell! The rest of you, come on!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Part 2 of Doomsday will probably be dropping on Thursday!


	4. Doomsday: Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heck. Here we go.
> 
> Disclaimer: most of the dialogue was written by the writers of Doctor Who.

“I just fell – I didn’t mean it!” Mickey insisted as they ran down the corridor

“Mickey, without us, they’d have opened it by force, and to do that, they’d have blown up the sun, so you’ve done us a favour!” The Doctor grabbed Mickey’s head and kissed him. “Now run!”

They turned a corner and saw a couple of Cybermen with their backs to them and heard a feminine squeal. Pete grabbed Mickey’s gun and shot the Cybermen before they could hurt the woman.

Ryan made out his mother through the smoke which slowly dissipated. He was so glad that she was still alive.

Jackie walked between the bodies of the Cybermen, stopping when she saw the man who saved her.

“Pete?” she exclaimed; the disbelief clear in her voice.

“Hello, Jacks.”

“I said there were ghosts, but that’s not fair, why him?” Jackie sounded like she was on the verge of tears. Ryan fiddled with his fingers; as a child, he had always wanted to see his parents together, as they would be now, and somehow, through all the madness that was going on, it was happening.

Pete opened his arms slightly in a welcoming gesture. “I’m not a ghost.”

“But you’re dead! You died twenty years ago, Pete!”

The Doctor slowly stepped forwards. “It’s Pete from a different universe,” he hesitantly explained. “There are parallel worlds, Jackie. Every single decision we make creates a parallel existence, a different dimension where-“

“Oh, you can shut up.” Ryan smirked at that, often the Doctor would mess up in emotional moments like this, and there was no one better to put him in his place. The Doctor silently nodded and slowly backed away.

“Oh. You look old.”

“You don’t.”

Jackie frowned slightly. “How can you be standing there?”

Pete shrugged. “Just got lucky. Lived my life. But you… were left on your own. You didn’t marry again, or…?”

“There was never anyone else,” Jackie said softly. Ryan smiled to himself. “Twenty years, though. Look at me - I never left that flat. Did nothing with myself.

“You brought him up,” Pete grumbled, then softened slightly. “Not bad.”

Ryan didn’t know what to make of Pete’s tone of voice. He caught the Doctor out of the corner of his eye; his smile shone with pride, but his eyes looked apologetic.

“Yeah…” Jackie whispered.

“In my world, it worked. All those daft little plans of mine, it worked. Made me rich.”

“I don’t care about that… how rich?”

“Very.” Pete nodded profusely.

“I don’t care about that… how very?”

Ryan rolled his eyes as he heard amused snorts from the other men in the corridor.

“Thing is though, Jacks.” Pete hesitated. “You’re not my wife. I’m sorry, but you’re not. I mean, we both…” He stumbled over his words, but Jackie nodded in understanding. “You know, it’s just sort of… oh, come here.”

Pete dropped his gun as he ran towards Jackie. The pair met in the middle – Jackie jumping into Pete’s awaiting arms. Ryan smiled - maybe something good could come of all this.

***

The Doctor threw open the doors to the main warehouse; he had said there was something he needed to grab. Ryan sucked a breath in as he peered around the doorway. It was chaos. There was just so much noise: the screams of the fallen, the ricochet of bullets, the discharging of energy weapons. Fire was concentrated on the Daleks by both Cybermen and Torchwood soldiers, but their numbers gradually dwindled as the Daleks killed indiscriminately.

The Doctor dived into the room, landing roughly on the ground. He crawled over to a couple of crates, ducking as he pulled out a couple of huge, black clamps, using them as cover.

Ryan prayed for the Doctor’s safety as he stumbled back to them, tripping over a dead Cyberman. He slammed the doors shut and the group started to move, but the Doctor stopped them.

“Hold on, there’s something that I think we’re going to need to watch…”

He slipped on his 3D glasses and stuck his head between the doors. Ryan leant over his shoulder. The Daleks had come to a halt in the middle of the room.

“OVERRIDE ROOF MECHANISM!” commanded Dalek Sec. The warehouse roof groaned and creaked as it parted.

“ELEVATE!” Dalek Sec hovered upwards, accompanied by the Genesis Ark.

“What’re they doing? Why do they need to get outside?” Ryan asked.

“Time Lord science. What Time Lord science?” the Doctor spat out, ignoring Ryan’s questions. “What is it?”

Ryan followed his lead as he quickly pulled away from the door, and then they were running down a corridor. Ryan noticed that today was starting to show a bit of a pattern.

“We’ve gotta see what it’s doing, we’re gonna go back up! Come on! All of you, top floor!” the Doctor yelled.

“But that’s forty-five floors up!” Jackie moaned. “Believe me, I’ve done ‘em all!”

They heard Jake behind them. “We could always take the lift!”

The group of six packed into the small lift. No one said anything as it slowly climbed. Ryan’s eyes flicked over to the Doctor. His shoulders were tense, and he was tapping his foot in impatience. Ryan let his fingers brush against the Doctor’s, giving him a small smile. The Doctor took hold of his hand and gave it a tight squeeze, letting go as quickly as he had grabbed it. Ryan watched as he threw his head backwards against the wall, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed.

As soon as the lift shuddered to a halt, everyone piled out, the Doctor leading them to a large room with towering windows, lots of computers and an imposing white wall. They dashed over to the nearest window, and spotted Dalek Sec with the Genesis Ark, an anachronism against the backdrop of the London skyline. The Genesis Ark started to spin, expelling Daleks in every direction.

“Time Lord science. It’s bigger on the inside,” the Doctor said, darkly.

“The Time Lords put those Daleks in there?” Mickey asked. “What for?”

“It’s a prison ship.”

Ryan looked up at the Doctor. “How many Daleks?”

“Millions,” he replied, not looking away from the swarm emerging outside.

Holy shit. Even with the Doctor, they were fucked. Now, more than ever, Ryan hoped that the Doctor was able to pull a plan out of his skinny arse.

Behind them, Pete stormed away from the window, as the Daleks began their slaughter.

“I’m sorry, but you’ve had it. This world’s gonna crash and burn, there’s nothing we can do. We’re going home. Jacks, take this.” He handed her a button, like the one Mickey had. “You’re coming with us.”

“But they’re destroying the city!” Jackie argued.

“I’d forgotten you could argue. It’s not just London, it’s the whole world,” Pete replied, slipping the chain attached to the button over Jackie’s head. “But there’s another world, just waiting for you, Jacks, and it’s safe, as long as the Doctor closes the breach.” He looked at the man in question. “Doctor?”

The Doctor twisted around, with a grin on his face and his 3D glasses over his eyes.

“Oh, I’m ready! Equipment right here. Thank you, Torchwood!” He sprinted past them and started typing rapidly on a keyboard. “Slam it down and close off both universes.”

“But we can’t just leave, what about the Daleks? And the Cybermen?” Ryan questioned.

“They’re part of the problem, and that,” the Doctor victoriously pointed his finger, “makes them part of the solution. Oh yes!”

Ryan nervously laughed.

“Well? Isn’t anybody going to ask? What is it with the glasses?” the Doctor said gleefully, wiggling his index fingers at the frames.

“What is it with the glasses?” Ryan asked, giggling, playing along with him.

“I can see! That’s what! ‘Cos we’ve got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate worlds, we’ve got the Void. That’s where the Daleks were hiding, and the Cybermen travelled through the Void to get here. And you lot, one world to another, via the Void. Ooh, I like that! Via the Void!” he repeated, gesturing like a conductor of an orchestra.

“Look!” he grabbed his glasses and pressed them against Ryan’s face. “I’ve been through it, do you see?”

The Doctor wiggled from side to side, and Ryan noticed the particles that trailed after him.

“What is it?”

“Void stuff!”

“Like, um, background radiation!”

“That’s it! Look at the others!”

Ryan glanced behind him. Jake, Mickey and Pete all had the Void stuff surrounding them, but his mother didn’t.

“And the only one who hasn’t been through the Void…” The Doctor pointed at Jackie. “Your mother. First time she’s looked normal in her life.” Ryan chuckled at that quip, but Jackie made her annoyance known with an indignant “oi”.

The Doctor ran to the back of the room in his hyperactivity, Ryan jogged after him.

“But the Daleks lived inside the Void! They’re bristling with it! Cybermen, all of them! I just open the Void and reverse! The Void stuff gets sucked back inside!”

“Pulling them all in!” Ryan exclaimed gleefully.

“Pulling them all in!” the Doctor repeated, pumping his fist.

“Sorry, what’s the Void?” Mickey asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

“The dead space. Some people call it Hell.”

“So, you’re sending the Daleks and Cybermen to Hell?” Mickey nudged Jake. “Man, I told you he was good.”

“But, it’s like you said,” Ryan began. “We’ve all got Void stuff, me too, ‘cos we went to that parallel world.” He glanced down at his hand. Sure enough, Void stuff was swirling around it. “We’re all contaminated, we’ll get pulled in,” he murmured.

The Doctor swallowed, before looking Ryan in the eye.

“That’s why I’m letting you make a choice. You could go back to Pete’s World – hey, we should call it that. Pete’s world,” he called out, momentarily distracted. “I’m opening the Void, but only on this side. You’d be safe on that side.”

Safe from the Void, maybe, but not from discrimination, Ryan thought. The Doctor had been truly understanding and accepting since the moment he came out - he didn’t know for certain that there would be anyone else like that in the parallel universe. The Doctor cared for him, always ensuring that he was okay. Besides, the Doctor needed someone to hold his hand. And Ryan didn’t want to let go.

“And then you close it?” Pete interrupted. “For good?”

“The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff,” the Doctor explained. “In the end, it’ll close itself, and that’s it. Kaput.”

The Doctor turned back to Ryan, but couldn’t hold his gaze this time. “Or, you stay here. But you won’t be able to see your mother, ever again…” he trailed off.

Ryan tentatively reached out to the Doctor’s face, tilting his chin up.

“I made my choice a long time ago and I’m never gonna leave you.”

The Doctor sighed. “Okay, just… if you do go, I would never hold it against you…”

Ryan gave him a small smile and let his hand drop away.

The building shook suddenly.

“We haven’t got time for this,” Pete snapped. “The plan works, we’re going. All of us.”

“I’m not going without him,” Jackie interjected.

“Oh my god, we’re going!”

“I’ve had twenty years without you, so button it! I’m not leaving him!”

Ryan gently grabbed Jackie by the arm. “You’ve got to!”

“Well, that’s tough!”

“Mum… I’ve had a life with you for nineteen years, but then I met the Doctor, and…” Ryan wasn’t sure how to finish his sentence. “But it’s a brand-new chapter of my life, and I’ve gotta move on…”

Jackie shook her head, in tears. “Please don’t…”

But before Ryan could say anything else, Pete slammed his hand down onto his button, leaving Ryan alone with the Doctor.

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor mumbled behind him.

Ryan didn’t respond immediately. He took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. He could mourn later, but they needed to focus right now. “So, what’s next?”

“ _Systems rebooted. Open access_ ,” the computerised voice echoed.

“You see that computer over there?” The Doctor pointed. “Set all the co-ordinates to six, thanks.”

Ryan walked over and started typing, but a new window popped up, showing CCTV footage.

“We’ve got Cybermen on the way up.”

“How many floors down?” the Doctor asked with urgency, running over.

“Just one.”

Ryan glanced over at the Doctor who had just finished working at a laptop. He noticed his grin.

“ _Leavers operational_.”

“That’s more like it. Bit of a smile,” Ryan teased. “The old team.”

“Hope and Glory! Mutt and Jeff! Shiver and Shake!” the Doctor rattled off, grabbing a clamp.

“Which one’s Shiver?” Ryan asked, his knowledge of seventies comics wasn’t quite up to scratch.

“Oh, I’m Shake!” the Doctor replied as he thrust the clamp into Ryan’s arms.

The Doctor grabbed his own clamp and directed Ryan to a metal strip on the wall.

“Press the red button,” he instructed. Ryan did, and the clamp started bleeping.

“When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn’t be too bad for us, but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Void stuff. You ready?” They mirrored each other’s position at the levers, poised to lift.

“So are they,” Ryan said, spotting four Daleks at the window, ready to kill.

“Let’s do it!”

With a few grunts, they pushed their levers into vertical positions and sprinted over to the clamps, grabbing on tightly.

“ _Online._ ”

Suddenly, there was a bright light coming from the far wall and a deafening wind pulling them towards it. The glass shattered, and the four Daleks tumbled in, disappearing into the Void.

“The breach is open! Into the Void! Ha!” the Doctor yelled. Ryan looked over at him. The Doctor had much longer legs, meaning he was able to brace himself against the lever base. Ryan didn’t have that luxury.

Very quickly, the room was filled with screaming Daleks, falling to their deaths. They were soon joined by hordes of Cybermen.

A Dalek knocked Ryan’s lever and it sparked.

“ _Offline_ ,” the computerised voice announced as the lever inched down. Ryan reached out for it, the Doctor shouting at him, telling him to hold on. He fell forwards, both hands on the lever.

“I’ve gotta get it upright!” he yelled as he carefully edged around the lever base. He found his footing and looked at the Doctor as he pushed it upwards. The Doctor wasn’t even attempting to hide his terror. The lever snapped into place.

“ _Online and locked_.”

The windspeed increased, much faster than it was before, and more and more Daleks and Cybermen fell through.

His feet were lifted from the ground.

Leaving his fate to his grip.

“Ryan, hold on!” the Doctor screamed.

Ryan groaned with the effort.

“Hold on!”

His fingers were starting to slip.

Just a little bit longer.

He was almost down to his fingertips.

The wind pulling, rushing past.

The Doctor screaming, reaching out.

And then.

Everything stopped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope I managed to get the pacing right on that, especially the last part.  
> Next time: the aftermath (will probably be in at least 2 chapters). When? Sunday, probably.


	5. The Aftermath: Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was difficult to write, I had a bunch of ideas floating around and I was having a hard time stringing them together, but I hoped it worked out.
> 
> CW: heavily implied and referenced self harm.

Ryan crashed to the ground, smashing his arm against the lever base as he fell. He rolled onto his back, unable to hear anything other than his own heaving breaths and the blood pounding through his ears. He tilted his head to look at the Doctor, who was slack against the wall, sliding down to the floor. Neither said anything while they caught their breaths.

The Doctor was the first to speak.

“You’re here… we’re both here…” he said, breathlessly.

“Yeah…”

Everything hit Ryan at once as he tried to get up. He would never see his mother again. He never got to properly say goodbye. And as he put the smallest amount of weight on his right hand, a sharp pain shot up his arm.

“Argh, fuck,” he hissed. The expletive shook the Doctor into action, as he was by Ryan’s side in an instant.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, concerned.

“Think I broke my arm,” Ryan grunted. “Probably fell on it.”

Wordlessly, the Doctor crouched down, manoeuvring Ryan’s good arm around his neck, while he wrapped his arm around Ryan’s waist, gently pulling him to his feet. But instead of moving away and letting go, the Doctor moved in closer, burying his face in the crook of Ryan’s neck.

“I almost lost you,” he whispered. Ryan soothingly stroked the back of his neck, occasionally slipping his fingers through his chestnut brown hair. The Doctor had never been this vulnerable before, always in control of the situation (or at least pretending to be). But there was no point in pretending now, Ryan had seen his fear and the Doctor knew he had, so he let his guard slip down. It wasn’t like Ryan hadn’t been terrified too.

“Sorry,” the Doctor mumbled as he pulled away, retracting his arms from around Ryan. He fished his sonic from out of his pocket and cradled Ryan’s arm as he scanned it.

“Fractured wrist,” the Doctor concluded. “I’ll fix it up for you when we get back to the TARDIS.”

Ryan nodded numbly. He glanced around the room, at one end, an unsalvageable office area with shattered windows and papers scattered like a bomb had gone off. Maybe it had. At the other end, there was that smooth white wall, offering no opportunities to make a hole through to the other side. It was mocking him.

He didn’t want to think about how many had actually died.

“What’s gonna happen to this place? I mean, there’s loads of alien artefacts and stuff lying around,” Ryan asked.

“UNIT will sort it.”

“UNIT…” Ryan tried to remember where he had heard the name before. “They your friends who were with you in Downing Street?”

The Doctor offered him a small smile. “Yeah, that’s the one. Although, I wouldn’t actually call them friends, more like acquaintances. Well, more like former employers, you see, I used to work for them in the seventies, and I help them out now and again.”

“Hang on, you worked for them? As in they paid you?”

The Doctor had a feeling he knew where this was going. “Yeah,” he sighed.

“So, you’ve had money all this time, and yet I’m the one who has to pay for chips?” Ryan asked, slightly peeved.

The Doctor simply nodded.

Ryan cracked a grin. “You’re such a cheapskate,” he chuckled. “Next time we go for chips, _you’re_ paying,” he said, poking the Doctor’s chest for emphasis.

“We should probably leave - I don’t want to run into UNIT and we need to get your wrist sorted.”

“Okay,” Ryan said quietly, slipping his hand into the Doctor’s, intertwining their fingers. They both needed the comfort right now. The Doctor tugged him towards the door, them both sparing one last glance at that wall.

They rode the lift down to the warehouse in silence.

When they exited the lift, a man barged past them, tears streaming down his face.

“Are you okay?” Ryan asked him.

“Sorry, don’t worry,” the man said, his Welsh accent working its way through his sobs. He turned away, giving neither Ryan nor the Doctor the chance to respond.

“Come on.” The Doctor gently nudged Ryan towards the warehouse door - they were both anxious to get back to the TARDIS, and Ryan could really do with his bed.

Seeing that man just reminded Ryan of his own loss. He didn’t feel anything other than numbness; it hadn’t sunk in yet. Maybe this was all a bad dream? Wishful thinking, he knew that. But he was too tired to think of anything else, other than the fact that his arm was really bloody painful.

***

“There you go, all fixed up,” the Doctor announced as he finished using the osteo-regenerator on Ryan’s wrist. “Just make sure you leave this on for a week or so, just to make sure,” he said as he wrapped a brace around Ryan’s wrist.

“And I’ve got to make sure I don’t get into trouble?” Ryan joked.

“Well, yes, I thought I’d leave that unsaid, but then again, you are very jeopardy friendly.”

Ryan snorted, gingerly hopping off the examination bench. He yawned, exhaustion hitting him like a train.

The Doctor smirked. “Typical humans,” he said, more affectionately teasing than insulting. “You should go to bed.”

“Was thinking that myself,” Ryan replied absentmindedly, fiddling with his fringe. “Night, Doctor.”

“Goodnight, Ryan.”

And with that, Ryan padded down to his room. He got ready for bed like he was running on autopilot, detaching himself from the process. He soon slipped into a dreamless slumber.

***

Ryan chewed on a piece of toast, his mind not registering the salty butter oozing from it as he bit down. He swallowed. “Doctor?”

“Mmm?” The Doctor didn’t look up from the banana pancakes he was serving up for himself. He had offered to make Ryan some, but Ryan had declined. He didn’t feel like eating anything with strong flavours. If he did that, he feared it would pull him back into reality. Staying detached from everything worked as a coping mechanism, though he imagined a psychologist would tell him it wasn’t healthy. He didn’t care.

“We, I, should clear out the flat today.” He stumbled through the words, trying to keep a hold on himself.

The Doctor placed his plate on the table and slid into the chair in front of Ryan. It seemed they were going to have one of _those_ conversations again. The ones where people spoke deeply and truthfully, letting things spill without judgement. Most people had them past midnight, under the cover of darkness or barely illuminated by the TV in the background. But they were the Doctor and Ryan, they did things the same, but different. Instead of the low light of the unacknowledged new day, it was in the homey morning atmosphere of the galley. They had had more of these conversations in recent weeks and months. His gender identity was something he wanted to talk about openly with the Doctor, and the Doctor certainly hadn’t discouraged it. It was one of the few topics of a personal nature that the Doctor was willing to participate in without finding things too much, and hence backing out.

“You know, Ryan, we don’t have to do it today, time machine, remember?”

“Yeah, I know,” Ryan mumbled, tapping his half-eaten slice of toast against his plate. “It’s just something that I’m feeling anxious about, and the more I put it off, the more anxious I’ll be. Guess it’s the emotional equivalent of ripping off a plaster…”

“I…” Ryan glanced up to see the Doctor’s jaw snap shut.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing,” the Doctor replied, hastily picking up his knife and fork to tuck into his breakfast.

Well, there it was. For some reason, that conversation seemed to be getting a bit too personal for the Doctor, but Ryan had no idea how. They had just been discussing the matter of clearing out the flat that he had lived in for most of his life, something that shouldn’t have been too difficult for the Doctor to handle. But apparently not. Ryan had hoped the Doctor would be willing to open up more since he had come out to him, but that hope was probably coming from a selfish place. The Doctor didn’t owe him anything, not really. He could still try. They had time.

Ryan watched the Doctor wolf down his pancakes. He didn’t pick up what was left of his toast – just half a slice had felt like too much.

The metallic clatter of a fork landing on a ceramic plate broke Ryan out of his empty musings. He still had to ask the Doctor a follow-up question.

“Could you do something for me?”

“Mmm… yes! Anything!” replied the Doctor, snapping out of his own thoughts.

“Could… could you park the TARDIS inside the flat? Please?” Ryan hesitantly asked.

The Doctor’s face scrunched up slightly in confusion. “Of course. Any particular reason?”

“In case people recognise me and start asking awkward questions. Like, I dunno, “where’s your hair gone” and “why are you dressed like that”. I can’t deal with that right now.” He sighed, pressing his face into his palms. “And I don’t know what to do if they ask about Mum. Like, what do I even say?”

The Doctor reached across the table, coaxing one of Ryan’s hands away from his face so he could hold it in both of his. He let their hands rest between them, massaging Ryan’s palm with his thumbs.

“I looked at the news reports while you were asleep,” he softly began. “Both you and you mother have been reported dead. I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

Ryan looked at his hand clasped in the Doctor’s. He didn’t know what to make of it; it was too much to swallow. So he shoved it to the back of his mind, just like everything else.

“I could ask that they take you off the list,” the Doctor gently interjected.

“No… it’s fine,” Ryan muttered, before clearing his throat. “It’ll give the rest of my family and friends some closure. ‘Sides, I was never gonna go back anyway.” And I don’t have to worry about coming out to them either, Ryan added in his head. He knew it was selfish of him to think that, but he didn’t know how they’d react. Probably badly. He glanced up, seeing the briefest flash of guilt on the Doctor’s face before he settled for something more sympathetic.

“Okay then, just let me know when you’re ready,” the Doctor said with a grin.

***

One hour later, the TARDIS materialised in Jackie’s flat, barely fitting in the small space in the corner. Ryan held in a gasp as he stepped out the TARDIS, taking in the scene around him. It was like someone had pressed a pause button on a film and edited the characters out. Their mugs of tea still sat on the coffee table where they had left them yesterday. Gossip magazines were stacked against a wall. Framed photos decorated the walls. And then there was the silence, which was punctuated by rain dripping against the windows. It wasn’t refreshing summer rain, accompanied by petrichor. It wasn’t heavy rain either, the kind where you would snuggle up under the duvet and read a book. It was just grey.

Ryan had never heard the flat this quiet. He took a couple of steps forward. His mum should be here, nattering to her friends on the phone or laughing at I’m A Celebrity. His mum should be _here._ And then it hit him. He knew that he would never see his mum again, but seeing the flat without her was the alarm clock that woke him up.

He turned back to the Doctor, who was looking at him expectantly, awaiting instructions. Right, instructions. Give the Doctor something to do while he dealt with his emotions.

“Can you, um, check the fridge and cupboards for food?” Ryan asked. “You know, chuck everything that’s gone off, take everything else back to the galley?”

The Doctor nodded, looking intensely at Ryan, as if he was searching for something. Ryan tore his gaze away – it was too much.

“I’m just gonna… start with the bedrooms…” Ryan pointed his thumb behind him, excusing himself.

He walked into his old bedroom as quickly as he dared. He closed the door behind him and slid down to the carpet, letting the tears fall freely.

***

The Doctor was finished with his task after twenty minutes. All the food to be thrown away was in a black bin bag, which he had found in the cupboard under the sink. Everything else was neatly packed into the correct place onboard the TARDIS.

He paced up and down in the flat. He hadn’t seen or heard Ryan in a while. The Doctor quietly walked to Ryan’s old room, hovering outside the door. He heard faint sobbing coming from inside, so he gently knocked on the door.

“Ryan… I’m coming in…” He pushed the door open.

The first thing he saw was Ryan curled up in the foetal position on the bed, crying. Ryan flinched as he entered, turning away from the Doctor and rolling down the sleeve of his hoodie. The Doctor immediately picked up on that, putting two and two together when he spotted a pair of scissors discarded at the end of the bed.

The Doctor felt his hearts break at the sight. He swiftly laid down on the bed and pulled Ryan into his embrace, one hand rubbing his back, the other stroking his blond hair. Ryan relaxed out of his position, tugging the Doctor closer to him and tucking his head under the Doctor’s chin. By bottling everything up, Ryan had denied himself the comfort of another. This was what he had needed.

Once a few minutes had passed, Ryan felt he had regained enough control to speak.

“’S all my fault,” he mumbled. He felt the Doctor fractionally stiffen beside him.

“None of this is your fault,” the Doctor whispered.

“It fucking is!” Ryan snapped, pushing himself upright and out of the Doctor’s arms. “I clearly remember you saying I was the one that brought her with us to Torchwood. I fucking chose to leave her an’ I still can’t cope with my own decisions. An’ don’t you fucking dare say you should’ve just sent me to that fucking parallel universe!”

Ryan collapsed against the headboard, exhausted by his emotional outburst. The Doctor shifted to sit next to him.

“Ryan…” he began.

“I’m sorry,” Ryan cut in, looking away, out the window. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that…”

“Don’t worry, I’ve heard a lot worse,” he said softly. Ryan looked back to see him smiling. “Just let me talk for a minute, okay?”

Ryan nodded curtly.

“Everything that happened yesterday, that wasn’t your fault. It was Torchwood’s, or the Daleks’, or the Cybermen’s. A combination of the three, I suppose. Either way, definitely not your fault.”

The Doctor took a deep breath.

“I was worried about you, because you weren’t grieving. It’s important that you let yourself do that, otherwise everything just builds and builds until you explode. Not literally, of course…” He took Ryan’s hand in his. “But I don’t want you to feel guilty, if anything, I should be.” He noticed Ryan open his mouth to argue but stopped him. “Please hear me out. I chose to let you choose whether you would stay or not. I could have easily slipped one of those buttons around your neck when you weren’t looking – but I didn’t. You’ve matured so much, and I suppose I have too. But I feel guilty about tying you to me and the TARDIS. You don’t have anywhere to go if you wanted to leave- “

“Doctor, I told you I wasn’t gonna leave you,” Ryan interrupted. “Thank you for letting me make my own decisions, please stop apologising for things you aren’t to blame for.” He squeezed his hand.

“I know you what you just said, but I did kinda mess something up and I need to apologise to you.”

Ryan gave him a look of confusion but let him continue.

“When I met Pete again, I let my gob get away from me and I basically had to tell him about you being trans. I’m sorry I broke your trust, it’s not for me to tell, and I shouldn’t have done it- “

“Don’t worry about it,” Ryan murmured. “He would have found out soon enough anyway, and better then rather than when all hell went loose.”

The Doctor hummed in agreement.

“Could I see your arm?” he gently asked.

“No,” Ryan said quickly, drawing into himself.

“Please? I just want to clean it; I don’t want you getting infected.”

Ryan sighed, trying his best to shake off the shame he felt. “Fine… just... can we finish clearing the flat straight afterwards?”

“Yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Please leave any comments if you have any, I feel like this chapter (and the next one) are important and I'd like to know what you think.  
> Next chapter will be up in a few days.


	6. The Aftermath: Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I said this part was going to be done in two chapters, but I lie! It was getting longer than expected, so I've split it up again. Hope you enjoy!

The days and weeks trickled past. Since clearing out the flat, they hadn’t left the TARDIS, just drifting in the Time Vortex. The monotony suited Ryan; it made it easier to handle his grief. The Doctor had promised he’d find a way for Ryan to say a proper goodbye, but he had accepted that that may not happen. He wanted his mum to be happy with Pete, and that she would be able to move on with her life, rather than just sitting at home waiting for Ryan to come back.

He sighed – maybe today would be the day that he would break this repetitive cycle. His mum would want him to stop moping. He imagined the Doctor wanted him to do that too, but the Doctor had been careful to let Ryan do things at his own pace, and not push him too hard. But Ryan decided that he was going to put on his brave face, and he had an idea of where he wanted to go.

***

The Doctor turned as he heard the creak of the grating, indicating Ryan’s approach. He quickly appraised Ryan’s appearance; his eyes shone a little brighter and he stood a little taller, but he was still wearing his slightly oversized and baggy black hoodie – the one that the Doctor had nicknamed his dysphoria hoodie. So, he wasn’t feeling one hundred per cent, but the Doctor hadn’t been expecting that at all. Still, it was great that he seemed to be healing. Maybe he would be up for a trip, something safe. They had never gotten around to seeing Ian Dury and the Blockheads in 1979 Sheffield, so perhaps they could go there. Or possibly they could visit the diamond coral reefs on Kataa Flo Ko, but then again maybe not, as that would involve swimming and he didn’t know if Ryan would be comfortable with that. He would just have to ask.

“I was wondering- “

“D’ya reckon we could- “

“Sorry, you go first,” the Doctor said.

Ryan nodded slightly. “Could we visit Sarah Jane?” he said hesitantly, chewing on his fingernail. “’S just she’s someone on Earth who, well, y’know, _knows_. An’ she’s probably worried about you…”

“Ryan, you don’t need to justify wanting to see a friend. Hang on – why would she be worried about me?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Ryan mumbled, shaking his head. The Doctor was curious but decided not to push it.

“Okay then!” the Doctor said enthusiastically. “Ealing, 2007.”

***

The TARDIS materialised in an almost generic-looking London suburb. Ryan looked around him. It was very middle class; all clean streets with trim lawns and spacious detached and semi-detached houses. It was a far cry from where he had been brought up, concrete decorated with graffiti and cigarette butts and the lingering smell of weed. He swallowed, suddenly feeling very out of place and his anxiety skyrocketed. The Doctor held out his hand to Ryan, wiggling his fingers in invitation. Ryan took it, offering a slight smile. The touch would keep him grounded.

They rounded a corner to face a huge three-storey house. It had the kind of aesthetic that a much younger Ryan would have described as magical – but like a wizard’s tower rather than a witch’s hut. There was a mint-green retro-style car parked in the driveway – the kind of car Mickey would have appreciated.

The Doctor strolled up to the front door, tugging Ryan along with him. He flicked at the door knocker a few times, letting the polished brass drop against the door.

Sarah Jane opened the door, with a look of surprise on her face, as she obviously hadn’t been expecting visitors.

The Doctor smiled. “Hello, Sarah.”

“Doctor?” She stopped, squinting slightly at Ryan. He couldn’t help but notice how Sarah Jane’s eyes flicked down to their joined hands.

“And… Rose?” she said hesitantly. “Oh my goodness, you’re alive!” She stepped down onto the front step, hugging them each in turn. “Please, do come in.”

Sarah Jane lead them to her front room, briefly stopping when the Doctor took the opportunity to hang his coat up on a rack, which was unusual, as the Doctor just tended to throw it onto the most convenient available surface.

“Make yourself at home,” Sarah Jane insisted once they reached her front room, gesturing at her collection of sofas and armchairs. “I’m going to make some tea, do you still take yours with eight sugars, Doctor?”

Ryan shuddered at the thought of eight sugars, and so did the Doctor. “No thanks, just milk and two sugars, ta.”

“And you… Rose?”

“Um, same as him, thanks…”

Sarah Jane flashed them a quick smile, before heading off towards her kitchen. The Doctor sat down on the nearest sofa, patting the cushion next to him, grinning. Ryan hesitantly sat down next to him, leaving a polite gap between them.

“You used to take your tea with eight sugars?” Ryan asked incredulously.

The Doctor tugged at his ear. “Well, that was when I was in my fourth body. Had a bit of a sweet tooth back then. Well, I say a bit of a sweet tooth, all my teeth were sweet teeth. Had something of an affinity for jelly babies. Kinda like you with your chips,” he said teasingly, smirking as he poked Ryan in the side.

Ryan chose not to respond to that.

The Doctor’s tone softened. “Are you okay? Do you want me to explain everything to Sarah?”

Ryan shook his head. He knew that the Doctor was talking about how different he was compared to the last time they saw her, roughly six months ago in their joint investigation of Deffry Vale High School – rather than the events at Canary Wharf.

Sarah Jane soon returned to her front room, clutching three steaming mugs of tea. She handed Ryan and the Doctor their mugs, and they said their thanks.

“You’ve changed. Both of you,” Sarah Jane remarked as she sat down in an armchair. “Especially you, Rose.”

Ryan inwardly winced, and he felt the Doctor’s gaze fall on him. He glanced to meet the Doctor’s eyes, which were offering him strength and encouragement. Ryan refocused himself; he could do this.

“It’s um, Ryan now. Not Rose,” he said quietly, trying to control his pitch. His voice had been cracking a lot recently and he didn’t feel like embarrassing himself any further than he was potentially going to.

Sarah Jane raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but she didn’t react further. Ryan took that as an indication to continue.

“I’m transgender.”

“And that means…?” Sarah Jane asked in a neutral tone. Ryan mentally kicked himself, he kept forgetting this was 2007 and people were very uninformed. Not their fault though, he supposed.

“Right, um… basically I should’ve been born male. Like, I feel male and being seen by others as a man makes me feel happy. That’s why I’ve had my hair cut short and my voice is a bit deeper, cos I started testosterone injections about a month ago and- “

Ryan cut himself off. He was starting to ramble, much like the Doctor did when he was nervous or stressed.

Sarah Jane leaned forwards, resting her elbows on her knees. “I think that’s wonderful. Diversity is a beautiful thing amongst people; it makes the world so fascinating. And that you’ve obviously been through this journey of self-discovery is magical – I imagine not many people get to experience that. You should be so proud of yourself. And I hope he is too.” She indicated towards the Doctor.

The Doctor reached over to take Ryan’s hand, which was lying limply between them on the sofa. He smiled as he squeezed it.

“I am.”

Ryan was stunned into silence. He hadn’t been expecting that to go so well.

“Um… thanks,” he mumbled. He didn’t know what else to say.

The Doctor decided to step into the conversation.

“So, Sarah, what have you been up to?” he asked, showing genuine interest.

“Ah well, you know, investigating strange happenings. It’s been a bit quiet lately. Nothing’s happened since Canary Wharf. You were both there, weren’t you,” she asked, but it wasn’t a question. Her voice took on a more serious tone. “What happened?”

The Doctor exhaled sharply. “Where to start… at the beginning I suppose. A while back – not long before we found you – we ended up in the Scottish Highlands in 1879. I had aimed for Sheffield in 1979…”

Sarah Jane chuckled lightly at that. “You haven’t improved your driving then.”

“Nah, he hasn’t,” Ryan said grinning.

The Doctor grumbled something inaudible before continuing. “We sort of had a run in with Queen Victoria and a werewolf, well, I say werewolf, but it was technically a Lupine Wavelength Haemovariform. Anyway, we saved Vicky, defeated the wolf, et cetera, et cetera. But she was not amused.”

“I actually got her to say that!” Ryan interjected. He turned to the Doctor. “You still owe me ten quid, by the way.”

The Doctor smirked, before sobering his expression. “She thought we had too much fun, dealing with the werewolf, that is. She knighted us, then banished us. Probably blamed the whole incident on us, even though we saved her. So she founded an institution and named it after the house we were in. The Torchwood Institute, to protect the British Empire against alien threats, namely me. Fast forward a hundred odd years, they build One Canada Square, or Canary Wharf, as it’s better known. Torchwood built it to reach what they called a radar black spot, and investigated it, wanting to use it as an energy source, but it was actually a breach into the Void.”

“What’s the Void?” asked Sarah-Jane.

“It’s the dead space between parallel universes. Nothing exists there, and nothing can exist there, or so I thought. Torchwood poked and prodded the breach, experimenting. And something fell through, a Void Ship, which contained four Daleks that had escaped the Time War.”

“What about the Cybermen?”

“Ah right, yes, the Cybermen. About four months ago, the TARDIS fell out of the Time Vortex and into the Void. We ended up in a parallel London, where a very rich businessman, John Lumic, was dying, and so he built the Cybermen so that he would be able to live forever, preserving his brain. Naturally, that went wrong, and we defeated the Cybermen with the help of some other people, notably the parallel version of Ryan’s father. But some of the Cybermen survived. They used the weakness in the walls between worlds to push themselves into our universe, following in the wake of the Daleks. That’s what the ghosts were, the Cybermen mapping themselves onto this universe.”

“How did you get rid of them? And there were definitely more than four Daleks, so where did the rest of them come from?” Sarah Jane inquired.

“The Daleks had this prison ship with them, the Genesis Ark. The Time Lords used it in the Time War, to store captured Daleks. It was bigger on the inside, so millions of Daleks were stored in there. It needed artron energy to open, so it had to be touched by a time traveller. Mickey accidentally touched it, allowing for it to be opened.”

Sarah Jane’s hands flew to her mouth. “Poor Mickey, I hope he doesn’t blame himself for this.”

“He doesn’t,” Ryan added. “The Doctor said the Daleks would’ve blown up the Sun in order to get it open, that way was better in the long run.”

Sarah Jane nodded. “How did you defeat them?”

“I reconfigured the machinery used to open the breach, so that the breach would pull in everything that had been through the Void. Including us, because we had been to that parallel universe.” The Doctor hesitated. “We made it out alive, but it wasn’t without losses,” he finished quietly.

“I lost my mum,” Ryan said suddenly. The Doctor shifted closer to him, slipping an arm around his shoulders. Sarah Jane’s eyes softened with sympathy.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly.

“Thank you,” Ryan said sadly. “But she’s still alive; she just got caught up in everything. The parallel version of Pete, my dad, travelled through to our universe, with Mickey. He had stayed behind there after we encountered the Cybermen the first time. Pete took my mum and Mickey with him. She’d be safe there, and he was rich, they’d be happy together, and Mum wouldn’t waste her life waiting for me.”

The Doctor’s arm tightened around him, rubbing his upper arm. Ryan leaned into his side, trying to compose himself, taking deep breaths.

“Sorry,” Ryan mumbled. “Could I use your bathroom?”

“Sure, down the hall, second door on the left,” Sarah Jane replied.

Ryan quickly removed himself from the Doctor’s grip and left the room. He didn’t want to break down in front of anyone else again.

***

“Shouldn’t you go after him?” Sarah Jane asked the Doctor.

He shook his head. “I’ll give him five minutes; I’ll check on him after that.”

Sarah Jane smiled. She had never seen the Doctor like this – he was so sweet on Ryan, and it was so clear that they loved each other, but it wasn’t her place to say that.

“He’s done you a lot of good,” Sarah Jane stated simply.

The Doctor nodded and smiled almost serenely. “He has.”

Sarah Jane chuckled. “Don’t let him go.”

“Wasn’t planning to.”

***

Ryan walked back into the front room about four minutes later, where the Doctor and Sarah Jane were lightly conversing. The Doctor smiled when he saw him.

“Ah, Ryan. Sarah Jane mentioned that they’d built a memorial at Canary Wharf. We could visit it, if you like.”

Ryan paused. He initially didn’t want to, but doing something like that would probably help him move on, and it would be nice to able to pay respect to those who died.

Ryan nodded once. “Okay. Would you like to come?” he asked Sarah Jane.

“Of course, if you don’t mind. I could give you a lift, if you like?” she replied. “Shall we go now?”

“Okay,” Ryan confirmed. Sarah Jane left to get ready, leaving the Doctor and Ryan alone. The Doctor suddenly wrapped his arms around Ryan’s shoulders, pulling him into a hug. Ryan reflexively slipped his arms around the Doctor’s waist.

“Everything okay?” the Doctor whispered into his ear.

Ryan hummed his affirmation into the Doctor’s chest.

“Good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goddamn the DW wiki for not having how Ten or Rose take their tea, so I made that up :P  
> Thanks for reading, the final chapter before The Runaway Bride will be up in a few days.


	7. The Aftermath: Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter of this "episode". I hope you enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: some of the dialogue was written by the writers of Doctor Who.

The trio squeezed into Sarah Jane’s small car, with Ryan sat alone in the back, as the Doctor needed all the leg room he could get. The journey was completed in relative silence, only stopping once at a petrol station to buy a bouquet of flowers.

They parked about half a mile from the memorial, as finding a parking space would be much more difficult if they got any closer. Sarah Jane walked slightly ahead of the Doctor and Ryan, who were holding hands. She gave them some space once they had reached the memorial.

Ryan stared at the huge wall of names in front of him – it put the scale of the deaths into perspective, and he couldn’t help but wonder how many people actually made it out of that building alive. He got the feeling that himself and the Doctor were members of a very small minority.

The Doctor’s hand tugging on his disrupted his thoughts. He let the Doctor pull him towards the right-hand side of the stone wall; he guessed that the names were listed alphabetically by surname, so that would be where the Ts would be.

As they approached, Ryan’s eyes scanned the polished granite for his mother’s name. Its gold lettering was near the bottom of the column. _Jacqueline Tyler_ , with _Rose Tyler_ engraved beneath it. He smirked. That adds a whole new meaning to deadname, he thought darkly.

He let go of the Doctor’s hand, crouching down to gently place the flowers on the ledge the stone was resting upon. He let his fingers trace over his mother’s name, letting the characters burn onto his fingertips. He swallowed once he had finished with the R, and rose slowly. He took a couple of small steps back and felt the Doctor’s arm around his waist. Ryan leant into him in a half hug.

“Feels weird, y’know, laying flowers for someone who’s still alive,” Ryan mused. The Doctor didn’t say anything. Ryan understood – he wouldn’t know what to say if someone had said that to him, either.

They stood in silence, contemplating. Ryan let happy memories flow through his mind: Christmases, birthdays, even just quiet moments watching telly. That’s what he should have been doing; remembering the good things that had happened, rather than mourning over things that were could-have-beens and now never-weres.

“D’you reckon that’s what the Beast meant, about dying in battle?” Ryan pondered. “You know, cos I’m legally dead.”

“No… that’s not how the Beast’s prophecies work,” the Doctor replied. He inhaled sharply before continuing. “I felt the timelines shift at the last second, before you would have- “

He cut himself off. “Something caused the breach to be a little more efficient, meaning it closed sooner than it would have in the original timeline. That’s what the Beast saw, you being… not here. Dead to this universe. I’m sorry.”

“What are you apologising for?” Ryan asked.

“Poor phrasing, I suppose,” the Doctor mumbled.

Ryan paused for a moment. “It’s fine. Sometimes it’s better to be blunt and honest rather than tiptoeing around euphemisms. And stop blaming yourself for everything. Please.”

“Sorry.”

Ryan turned to the Doctor to glare at him, but stopped when he saw the teasing grin.

“You idiot,” he sighed.

They watched other people walk by for several more minutes. Most people were in a hurry to catch the next tube, some talking rapidly into their mobile phones. This was modern London, people got on with their lives, ignorant to the complexities of the lives of others. If New York City was the city that never sleeps, then London was the city that never stops moving. Ironic, thought Ryan, as the Doctor – the man who was always itching to move on - stood here still, with him, while everyone else moved around them.

“It’s going to rain soon,” the Doctor said, startling Ryan out of his thoughts. Huh, I guess the Doctor truly has gone native, Ryan thought.

He looked at the sky across the river, and sure enough, there were grey clouds moving in from the south.

“We should get going,” Ryan mumbled. He saw Sarah Jane approach out of the corner of his eye – it seemed she had been thinking the same thing.

“We’re ready to go,” the Doctor addressed her.

Sarah Jane nodded in response, and the three walked back to her car.

***

“Thank you so much for the lift, and for having us,” Ryan said as he hugged Sarah Jane. They were back on Bannerman Road, standing outside her house.

“You’re very welcome,” Sarah Jane replied. “Don’t be a stranger; pop around anytime you like, and don’t hesitate to call me if you need to. And you,” she turned to the Doctor. “Look after him, okay?”

“I think you’ll find Ryan looks after me,” the Doctor said, smiling. “Goodbye, Sarah.”

“Goodbye, Doctor, Ryan. Be careful.”

“We will, won’t we?” Ryan nudged the Doctor.

“’Course,” he replied.

They each said one last goodbye, before Ryan and the Doctor turned away, back to the TARDIS.

***

_One week later_

Ryan woke to the sound of sharp knocking on his door. He glanced at the alarm clock on his bedside table. 08:53. That was far too early. Any time before ten was too early.

“What?” he grumbled, before burying his face back into his pillow. He heard the door click open, and he braced himself for the impact of the Doctor bouncing on his bed, but it didn’t come. He rolled over to face the doorway. The Doctor was stood there, hands in pockets, bouncing on his heels.

“What?”

“I found a small crack between the walls of the universes, not big enough for us to get through, but you’ll be able to say goodbye to your mother. Properly,” the Doctor said.

Ryan almost couldn’t believe it.

“Do you need me to do anything?”

“Um, yeah. First of all, I’ll need a DNA sample, to make it a bit easier for the TARDIS to be able to lock onto your mum.”

The Doctor pulled a swab kit from his pocket, unscrewing it. “Open wide.”

Ryan did as instructed, letting the Doctor thoroughly swab the inside of his mouth.

“Thank you,” the Doctor said as he replaced the cap on the swab kit. “And there’s something else you need to do as well before you can talk to her, but you should get dressed – and do whatever you humans need to do – first.”

“How long have I got?” asked Ryan.

The Doctor’s face briefly scrunched up, calculating.

“Five minutes is the most I’d recommend.”

Ryan nodded sharply, then shooed the Doctor out of his room. He slipped out of his pyjamas and threw on the nearest clean clothes. Dark grey combat trousers with his favourite black hoodie. A bit goth, he supposed, but it would have to do. He quickly sorted himself out in his ensuite bathroom, before pulling on a pair of trainers and practically sprinting to the console room.

“Four minutes and twenty-six seconds,” the Doctor announced when he saw Ryan. “That’s definitely a record.”

“Shut up,” Ryan breathed out. “What do you need me to do?”

“I’m going to need you to use the TARDIS’s telepathic interface,” the Doctor explained. “I found Jackie, using your DNA sample, as you’ve got half of her DNA – but we need to actually get her attention.”

“Hang on,” Ryan interrupted. “I’ve got half of Pete’s DNA as well, so how do you know you’ve found my mum and not him?”

“Well, I found both of them, but it was easy enough to pick out your mother by looking at the pair of sex chromosomes.”

Ryan nodded slowly. That was easy enough for him to understand, for once. “What about this telepathic interface?”

“Right, yes.” The Doctor guided him over to the console, and indicated at a pair of circular surfaces amid the forest of buttons, dials and levers. The surfaces were very small, barely big enough to fit two fingertips on each.

“How do I use it?” Ryan asked.

“You’ve seen me use telepathy before, where I put my index and middle fingers on someone’s temples?”

“Yep. Do I put my fingertips on the interface like that?”

The Doctor grinned. “Yep, exactly that!”

Ryan delicately placed his fingers on the telepathic interface, and nodded at the Doctor, awaiting further instruction. He was actually going to be able to speak to his mum! He’d gotten so caught up in the excitement that he hadn’t properly realised that he was going to say goodbye. But that meant that once this was over, it was over for good. He really wasn’t going to see her again, after this.

“Okay, now I need you to think of your mother. Memories are best,” the Doctor said as he pressed a lot of buttons in quick succession, occasionally flicking his eyes up to look at the monitor. Ryan shut his eyes, relieving his strongest memories of him with his mum.

“We’re ready,” the Doctor said, about a minute later.

Ryan opened his eyes slowly. Instead of the gold and bronze of the TARDIS interior, he saw a beach. He didn’t recognise it; it could have been anywhere. For all he knew, he’d made his mother drive to the other side of the country, in Wales or something. Maybe even further.

“Ryan?”

He turned around. There she was. Jackie Tyler. He saw Pete and Mickey about twenty metres away, with a Jeep parked behind them on the beach.

“Mum…”

“Where are you, love?” Jackie asked.

“Inside the TARDIS. The Doctor found a small gap between the universes.”

“Is himself there?”

“Yep.”

Ryan looked to his right, and the Doctor had appeared beside him.

“We’re in orbit around a supernova; the TARDIS needs a lot of power to do this,” the Doctor explained.

“How comes you both look like ghosts? You’re all see-through,” Jackie said.

“Hang on.” The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it behind them, towards where the console would be.

Jackie took a few steps forwards, with her hand outstretched.

“I’m sorry, Mum,” Ryan said, regretfully. “We’re just images, you can’t touch us.”

“Can’t you come through properly?” Jackie moaned, sadly.

“Think we’d destroy something if we did…” Ryan conjectured.

“Yeah, both our universes would collapse,” the Doctor confirmed.

Jackie shrugged. “And?”

Ryan chuckled. There it was, typical Tyler stubbornness.

“Where did we come out?” Ryan asked.

“Bloody Norway. About fifty miles out of Bergen.”

Ah. So not Wales, then. A bit further than that.

“It’s called Dårlig Ulv-Stranden. Dunno what it means,” Jackie continued.

_Bad Wolf Bay_ , Ryan heard the TARDIS supply to him. He glanced at the Doctor, whose gaze had hardened minutely. He knew what it meant; even if Norwegian wasn’t part of his repertoire of five billion languages, the TARDIS would have translated for him as well.

“How long have you got left?” Jackie asked, interrupting their brief silence.

“About two minutes,” the Doctor answered.

Ryan forced his tears down. “I don’t know what to say.”

“We got married, me and Pete,” Jackie said, smiling. “It was just a party really, seeing as we were already legally married, but it was nice anyway.”

Ryan smiled sadly. He was glad that his mum was getting on with her life.

“I’m pregnant, too!” Jackie added.

Ryan’s hands flew to his mouth. “Congratulations! How far along are you?”

Jackie smiled softly, stroking her abdomen. “Three months.”

“Congratulations,” the Doctor said sincerely. He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, but, um, you’re on the list of the dead. So many people went missing that day…”

“But you’re here, living your life,” Ryan interjected. “I always felt guilty about how you were waiting for me to come home,” he confessed, sadly. “But now you don’t have to.”

He watched as tears trickled down his mother’s cheek, leaving mascara stains.

“Am I ever gonna see you again?” Jackie asked, nearly sobbing.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t,” the Doctor said, full of remorse.

“Please Mum, don’t worry about me,” Ryan softly pleaded. “I’m with the Doctor; I’m happy with him.”

“I know, love.” Jackie turned to the Doctor, pointing an accusing finger at him. “That’s my son, Doctor. You’d better bloody well look after him. And don’t you dare abandon him – or I’ll find a way to get through!”

Ryan almost wanted to laugh, but couldn’t. He felt a tear slip out the corner of his eye.

“I will; I promise,” the Doctor said softly but sternly.

Ryan got a sudden feeling that time was running out.

“I love you, Mum!”

“I love you too!”

Ryan blinked and he was looking at the TARDIS interior again. He shuddered, and the floodgates opened. He was quickly wrapped up in the Doctor’s arms. He allowed himself to be surrounded by the Doctor’s tight embrace, muffling his sobs in the Doctor’s chest. The Doctor rubbed small, slow circles onto Ryan’s back, and whispered comforting reassurances to him. Ryan couldn’t hear what he was saying, too distracted by how the Doctor’s lips were brushing against his hair as he spoke.

Suddenly, he felt the Doctor freeze.

“What?”

Ryan pulled out the Doctor’s chest to look at him, wondering what he was talking about, but then he saw a woman in the TARDIS, in a wedding dress. Just standing there. What the fuck was going on?

The woman spun around to face the pair, who were still wrapped around each other. She made a squeak of surprise.

“What?” the Doctor repeated, dumbly.

“Who are you?” the woman asked, her voice slightly demanding.

“How?” Ryan mumbled.

“Where am I?”

“What?”

Apparently, the Doctor had forgotten all of his vocabulary.

“What the hell is this place?” the woman shouted.

“What?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! First chapter of The Runaway Bride will be up in a few days.


	8. The Runaway Bride: Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took longer than a few days - turns out writing characters into a pre-existing script is more tricky than I expected. I'm still not 100% happy with this chapter, but I hope it will be good enough. On a positive note, this episode has scene changes at 15, 30 and 45 minutes, making it very easy to split up. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: some of the dialogue is by the writers of Doctor Who.

The Doctor let go of Ryan, who went over to slouch on the jump seat, wiping his tears away. He was feeling emotionally exhausted after what had just happened and just wanted to go back to bed, even though he woke up barely twenty minutes ago. However, sleep wasn’t on the agenda, just lots of chocolate and some trashy rom coms.

“You can’t do that, I wasn’t… we’re in flight. That is, is physically impossible, how did…” the Doctor exclaimed, his voice rising in pitch as he spoke.

“Tell me where I am. I demand you tell me right now, where am I?” the ginger bride interrupted, her voice getting louder and louder.

“Inside the TARDIS,” the Doctor responded, deciding to fiddle with the console instead of being helpful.

Ryan sighed. He really didn’t want to have to get involved in anything, but the Doctor was doing a poor job of reading the situation.

“The what?”

“Doctor, she’s not going to know what the TARDIS is,” Ryan interjected, dragging himself off of the jump seat to stand next to the Doctor. He turned to the woman. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“Donna,” she replied curtly.

“Hi Donna. I’m Ryan, and this is the Doctor,” he said in a friendly tone, hoping to calm her down.

“I don’t care,” she sneered. “What the hell is this TARDIS thing? That’s not even a proper word! You’re just saying things.”

“How did you get in here?” the Doctor questioned, turning his attention back to Donna.

“Well, obviously, when you and your boyfriend kidnapped me,” Donna hissed. “Who was it? Who’s paying you? Was it Nerys? Oh, my god, she’s finally got me back. This has got Nerys written all over it.” Donna shook her hands angrily. Ryan decided to ignore the boyfriend comment; and put himself in charge of diplomacy.

“Sorry, who’s Nerys?” he asked.

“Your best friend,” Donna said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Hold on, wait a minute,” the Doctor interjected. “What are you dressed like that for?” he asked, his face scrunched up in confusion.

“Doctor, she’s getting married,” Ryan whispered harshly, adding an elbow to his ribs for good measure.

“I’m going ten-pin bowling,” Donna snarked. “Why do you think, dumbo!”

Ryan almost chuckled at the fear on the Doctor’s face as he backed away from her, turning back to the console.

“I was halfway up the aisle! I’ve waited all my life for this. I was just seconds away and then you, I dunno, you drug me or something!” Donna ranted as she took slow steps around the console.

“I swear, we haven’t done anything,” Ryan said calmly, sitting back down on the jump seat, as the Doctor tactically retreated away from Donna, switching to the opposite side of the console. Donna practically stomped towards him.

“I’m having the police on you! Me and my husband, as soon as he is my husband, we’re gonna sue the living backsides off you two!”

Donna was just reminding Ryan more and more of his mother. He thought he might have been able to handle it, but the similarities became more and more apparent. He wouldn’t be surprised if the Doctor got slapped at least once. He felt a wave of sadness hit him – this was getting to be too much too soon. He stared down at the grating, eyes unfocused.

“No, wait a minute, wait a minute, don’t…”

The Doctor’s frantic yelling brought Ryan back to reality. It seemed that Donna had spotted the exit and made a beeline to it, throwing the doors open.

“You’re in space,” the Doctor explained as he slowly walked to join Donna. “Outer space. This is my… space… ship. It’s called the TARDIS.

“How am I breathing?” Donna asked, much more calmly than before.

“The TARDIS is protecting us.” The Doctor paused. “Are you human?”

“Yeah. Is that optional?”

“Well, it is for me…”

Donna didn’t say anything for a few seconds, obviously trying to process what the Doctor had just said.

“You’re an alien?” she asked, sceptically.

“Yeah…”

“What about him? Is he an alien too?”

“Ryan? No, he’s human.”

Donna considered that piece of information. “It’s freezing with these doors open,” she said, matter-of-factly.

The Doctor slammed the doors shut. “I don’t understand it, and I understand everything!” he ranted as he ran up the ramp. “This, this can’t happen. There is no way a human being can lock itself onto the TARDIS and transport itself inside, it must be…”

Ryan watched as the Doctor grabbed a tool and started peering at Donna through it. Ryan knew she was not going to be happy with that. The probability of The Oncoming Storm meeting The Incoming Slap was increasing.

“Impossible. Some sort of subatomic connection? Something in the temporal field?” the Doctor rattled off. “Maybe something pulling you into alignment with the Chronon shell? Maybe something macro mining your DNA within the interior matrix. Maybe a genetic- “

_Crack_. Donna’s patience had worn thin, and Ryan winced as the Doctor was slapped. To be fair, he had it coming.

“What was that for?” the Doctor squeaked.

“Get me to the church!” Donna ordered, practically shaking with rage.

“Right, fine! We don’t want you here anyway,” the Doctor countered, jumping around the console. Ryan would have scolded him for being rude, but he couldn’t help but agree. Today was not the day for an adventure.

“Where is this wedding?”

“St. Mary’s, Hayden Road, Chiswick, London, England, Earth, The Solar System.”

Ryan caught Donna pointedly staring at him.

“What?”

“Are you okay, love?” Donna asked him gently. “You look like you’ve been crying.”

“Yeah, I’m fine…” Ryan lied. A lie which Donna didn’t buy.

“Did he kidnap you too? Or is he just a really shitty boyfriend?” Donna questioned, glaring at the Doctor.

“He’s not my boyfriend…” Ryan mumbled. “And, no I want to be here. I was just… saying goodbye to my mum,” he confessed. He didn’t want to talk about it any further, especially with a stranger. Thankfully, the Doctor chose that moment to interrupt.

“Right! Chiswick!” the Doctor announced as he flipped the dematerialisation lever.

***

The TARDIS groaned to a halt. Donna left as fast as she could, with Ryan and the Doctor following behind.

“I said St. Mary’s; what sort of Martian are you?” Donna said angrily.

“He’s not from Mars,” Ryan sighed as he leant against the TARDIS’s left door.

Donna intentionally ignored him. “Where’s this?”

Ryan looked around him. There was no church in sight; and although he had never been to Chiswick, he knew it would be a lot more suburban than whatever back street they were in.

“Doctor, where are we?” he asked, glancing sideways.

“Something’s wrong with her…” the Doctor murmured as he stroked the TARDIS. “The TARDIS, like she’s… recalibrating!” he exclaimed as he dashed back inside.

Ryan stayed where he was, watching shock form on Donna’s face. Why was she… oh. Bigger on the inside, well, smaller on the outside, from Donna’s perspective, he supposed.

“Donna!” he heard the Doctor shout between metallic clangs. “You’ve really gotta think, is there anything that might have caused this?”

Ryan watched Donna as she did the customary circle around the TARDIS. God, was that what he had looked like, nearly two years ago?

“Anything you might have done?” the Doctor continued, oblivious to Donna’s lack of attention on him. “Any sort of alien contact? ‘Cos we can’t let you go wandering off, not if it’s dangerous. I mean, have you seen lights in the sky?”

Donna stuck her head back in the TARDIS, not even attempting to hide her disbelief.

“Or did you touch something, like, something, something different, something strange, like something made out of a funny sort of metal? Who are you getting married to? You sure he’s human?”

Donna backed out of the TARDIS, hands over her mouth in shock.

“It’s okay, I was like that the first time, too,” Ryan tried reassuring her.

“He’s not a bit overweight with a zip round his forehead, is he?” the Doctor questioned. Ryan hoped not, fighting bloody Slitheen wasn’t something he needed today.

Fed up with everything, Donna marched away from the TARDIS.

“Doctor!” Ryan shouted, leaning into the TARDIS to grab his denim jacket off the handrail, quickly putting it on. He started to jog after Donna, the Doctor following with a sprint. They quickly caught up with her and walked beside her, Ryan on her right with the Doctor on her left, both with their hands in their pockets.

“Donna, come on,” Ryan pleaded.

“Leave me alone, I just wanna get married,” Donna insisted, her gaze focused straight ahead.

“Come back to the TARDIS,” the Doctor tried to persuade her, jogging in front of her slightly.

“No way. That box is too… weird,” Donna said dismissively.

“But Donna, its safe in there,” Ryan implored.

“It’s not that weird, it’s just bigger on the inside, that’s all,” the Doctor added.

“Doctor, that’s not gonna help,” Ryan hissed.

Donna sighed, lifting her left wrist to glance at her watch. “Ten past three, I’m gonna miss it,” she said, dismayed.

“Can’t you phone them, tell them where you are?” asked the Doctor.

“How do I do that?”

Ryan reached further into his pocket for his phone to offer it to Donna – he knew women’s clothing was strongly lacking in the pockets department, and there was no chance of Donna having a phone on her.

“Haven’t you got a mobile?” the Doctor questioned, ignorant to the situation. Well, of course he would be, Ryan didn’t imagine the Doctor had worn women’s clothes in a very long time, if ever, especially a wedding gown.

“Donna…” Ryan held his phone out to her, but she didn’t hear him. Donna suddenly stopped, turning to face the Doctor square on.

“I’m in my wedding dress. It doesn’t have pockets. Who has pockets? Have you ever seen a bride with pockets?”

The Doctor guiltily glanced at the ground, as he brought his hand up to scratch the back of his head.

Donna continued her tirade, ending with a shout. “When I went to my fitting at Chez Allison, the one thing I forgot to say was ‘give me pockets!’”

The Doctor swallowed and hesitantly nodded.

“Donna, I was gonna say you could borrow mine, if you like,” Ryan offered.

“Oh, if you don’t mind.”

“Nah, ‘course not.”

Donna shot him a grateful smile as she took the mobile and started to type a number.

“You’d be completely useless without him,” Donna said nonchalantly, looking up at the Doctor to glare at him.

“Yeah…” the Doctor mumbled.

Donna pressed the phone to her ear, rolling her eyes. “Pick up the bloody phone…” she muttered. After about a minute, she sighed and hung up, handing the phone back to Ryan.

“Mum’s not answering – must be on the phone to someone else.”

“Yeah, mums are like that,” Ryan agreed as he put his phone back in his combats, mentally recalling numerous occasions when Jackie had failed to answer, too busy chatting away to her friends. Just like at Christmas, when he and Mickey were escaping from the Robot Santas.

“Who’re you marrying?” he asked, making polite conversation, having figured it would be best to stay on Donna’s good side.

“Lance,” Donna answered with a dreamy smile, tilting her head.

“Good luck, Lance,” the Doctor commented from behind Donna.

“Oi!” she snapped around to look at him. “No stupid Martian is gonna stop me from getting married,” she hissed, pointing a finger as the Doctor leant back, as if he was cowering away. “To hell with you!” she yelled, storming away from them.

“I’m, I’m not- “

“Doctor – she ain’t listening!” Ryan interrupted. “Come on!”

He reached out to grab the Doctor’s hand, and they took off after Donna.

They emerged on a main street; due to her bright white wedding dress, Donna was very easy to spot amongst the crowds. She caught sight of them as they caught up to her.

“Can’t get rid of you two, can I?” Donna huffed, whilst jogging towards the road. “Taxi!” she hollered at a black cab, but the driver just ignored her. “Why’s his light on?”

“There’s another one!” the Doctor exclaimed, pointing his finger. Ryan and Donna followed the Doctor off the pavement as they tried to call it.

“Taxi!” Ryan shouted, sticking his arm out into the road.

Donna yelled an ‘oi’ as the driver just carried on straight past them, dismissing them like the previous one had.

“What the hell are they doing?” Ryan pondered. “There’s one!” he shouted – third time lucky, after all. However, the trio were ignored yet again, despite their frantic shouting and arm waving.

“Do you have this effect on everyone? Why aren’t they stopping?” the Doctor asked.

“They think I’m in fancy dress,” Donna reasoned.

A taxi driver honked his horn at them. “Lay off the sauce, darlin’” he mocked, window rolled down so they could hear.

“They think I’m drunk,” Donna shrugged, exasperated.

“You’re foolin’ no one, mate!” bellowed a couple of young men from their car, driving past on the other side of the street.

“They think I’m in drag,” Donna sighed. Ryan felt sorry for her – this was meant to be the best day of Donna’s life, but she was being hurled abuse from the public. He didn’t miss the way the Doctor looked at Donna up and down, assessing the men’s judgement. He pointedly glared at the Doctor, who at least had the decency to look slightly sheepish.

“Hold on, hold on,” the Doctor said, before bringing his fingers to his mouth to whistle loudly. Ryan winced at the piercing shrill, whilst Donna put her fingers in her ears, ducking slightly. That finally caught the attention of a taxi driver.

“St. Mary’s, in Chiswick, just off Hayden Road,” Donna instructed the driver as they piled into the back. “It’s an emergency, I’m getting married, just… hurry up!”

The driver glanced up to the rear-view mirror to look at them. “That’ll cost you, sweetheart, double rates today.”

“Oh my god,” Donna realised, “have you got any money?”

“Don’t bother asking him, he never carries any,” Ryan said, as he fished around in his pocket for cash. “Let’s see…” He quickly added up the values of the coins in his palm. “Two pound eighty ain’t gonna cover it, is it?”

Donna scowled slightly at his feeble attempt at humour.

“Haven’t you got any?” the Doctor asked Donna.

Donna rolled her eyes. “Pockets!” she reminded.

Having heard their conversation, the taxi driver pulled over, effectively kicking them out. Donna cursed him continually as they climbed out of the car. “And that goes double for your mother!” she shouted indignantly, as Ryan slammed the door shut. “I’ll have him. I’ve got his number,” she threatened. “I’ll have him. Talk about the Christmas spirit.”

“Shit, it’s Christmas already?” Ryan exclaimed.

“Well duh,” Donna snarked. “Maybe not on Mars, but here it’s Christmas Eve.”

“How come you’re getting married on Christmas Eve?” the Doctor asked.

“Can’t bear it, I hate Christmas,” Donna explained. “Having my honeymoon in Morocco, lovely sunshine.”

“D’you wanna try phoning your mum again?” Ryan suggested, phone in hand, ready.

“Yeah, cheers.” Donna took the phone and dialled.

“I’ll get some money,” the Doctor said, before dashing off to the nearest hole-in-the-wall.

Ryan’s gaze switched between the Doctor and Donna. The Doctor was impatiently hopping from one foot to another as he waited for the man in front of him in the queue, whereas Donna was repeatedly calling her mother to no avail. “Pick up the phone,” she groaned.

“Mum, get off the phone and listen,” Donna said tersely – Ryan guessed that Donna had gotten through to voicemail. “I’m in…” She looked around – Ryan shrugged and shook his head, silently telling her that he didn’t know where they were. “Oh my god, I don’t know where I am. It’s a street… and there’s a WH Smith.”

Ryan snorted – Donna had just described the high street of every British town or city. He hoped she wouldn’t mention the Boots next to it as well, that would just be taking the piss.

“But it’s definitely Earth!” Donna added, before hanging up and giving Ryan his mobile back. She approached a friendly-looking passer-by and asked for help.

“Excuse me. I’m begging you, I’m getting married, I really am and I’m late and I just need to borrow a tenner and I’ll pay you back, I promise and it’s Christmas,” she said quickly, all in one breath.

Whilst Donna was bargaining with the passer-by, Ryan faintly heard a brass band, playing a familiar tune. He struggled to remember where he had heard it before. He looked over to where the music was coming from and saw the Doctor, with his back to him, staring in the same direction. Then he saw them, slowly approaching.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me…” he muttered under his breath. It was the bloody Robot Santas from last Christmas. Back then, they were after the Doctor. And now, they were after…

“Donna!” the Doctor yelled, having turned back towards them. Hearing the squeal of tyres on the road behind him, Ryan snapped around to see that Donna had made a get-away, in a taxi driven by one of the Robot Santas.

Ryan started to jog back towards the Doctor, as he leant over to the cashpoint and used his sonic on it. It sent a flurry of bank notes into the air, resulting in people jumping up to grab the money, creating a perfect escape for them. The Doctor sprinted towards Ryan, grabbing his hand and pulling him along as they ran back to the TARDIS.

Once they had caught sight of the TARDIS, the Doctor started to fumble around in his pockets for his key.

“Just let me do it,” Ryan panted, pulling out the key that he kept on the chain around his neck. He bent over to unlock the TARDIS. He let the Doctor go in first, and followed behind him, quickly closing the door. The Doctor went over to the console, pressing buttons and twisting dials immediately. Ryan noticed that they weren’t all the usual controls for dematerialisation.

“You setting up some kinda scan to find Donna?” he asked.

“Yep,” the Doctor said distractedly, his teeth gritted with concentration. “A singular Roboform is easy enough to find.”

The TARDIS’s flight was a lot shakier than usual, Ryan being forced to grab onto a nearby handrail.

“Found her,” the Doctor said triumphantly, spinning the monitor around to show Ryan. He took a moment to interpret the lines.

“She’s on a motorway?” he questioned incredulously, having realised he was looking at a road map.

“Yeah, the M4. Though I don’t know where it’s taking her – Swindon, Bristol, Cardiff? Either way, we’re going to save her before we get to find out.”

The TARDIS sparked and jerked roughly, throwing them backwards. The Doctor brandished a mallet and hit the console, telling the TARDIS to behave.

Ryan scolded him. “You know she doesn’t like that.” The Doctor smiled apologetically, dropping the mallet and stroking the TARDIS where he had just hit her. They felt another huge jolt, coming from beneath.

“Fucking hell, what was that?” Ryan exclaimed.

“Er, the road, probably, hopefully,” the Doctor said quickly. “Right, you’re going to have to fly her. When I say forwards, use this one.” He pointed at a dial. “When I say up, pull this,” he said, pointing at a lever.

Ryan nodded confidently. “Got it. Good luck,” he smiled.

The Doctor shot him a grin in return. “And you.”

He moved down the ramp, throwing the doors open and staggered against the door frame, bracing himself.

“Open the door!” he shouted; Ryan was barely able to make him out against the noise of the traffic. He repeated it again, more slowly and enunciated that time. The Doctor pulled something out of his pocket, presumably his sonic screwdriver.

“Santa’s a robot!” Ryan heard Donna yell, surprisingly clearly.

“Donna, open the door!”

“What for?”

“You’ve got to jump!”

“I’m not blinking flip jumping – I’m supposed to be getting married!” Ryan smiled at Donna’s squawking, he liked her sense of humour, even when she wasn’t trying to be funny.

“Ryan, forwards!” the Doctor instructed, hurriedly; Ryan turned the dial. Sparks flew out of the console, Ryan swearing as his hands were burnt. He glanced at the Doctor, watching in horror as he nearly lost his balance and fell out of the TARDIS.

“Listen to me, you’ve got to jump!” the Doctor yelled.

“I’m not jumping on a motorway!”

“Whatever that thing is, it needs you. And whatever it needs you for, it’s not good! Now come on!”

“I’m in my wedding dress!”

“Yes, you look lovely. Come on!”

“I can’t do it!”

Whatever the Doctor said next, Ryan couldn’t hear it.

“Ryan!” Donna shouted.

“Yeah?” he yelled back, as loud as he could.

“Do you trust him?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “With my life!” he added for good measure. He heard screams and then saw the Doctor topple backwards, with Donna falling on top of him.

“Up!” the Doctor commanded. Ryan pushed the lever, taking them away from the dangerous motorway. Donna hastily rolled off the Doctor, mumbling something about preferences. Ryan ran to them, giving Donna a brief hug, before wrapping his arms around the Doctor’s neck. The Doctor’s arms found their way around Ryan’s waist, drawing them into their usual reunion hug.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” Ryan whispered into the Doctor’s collar, squeezing him a little tighter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A hole-in-the-wall is a British colloquialism for an ATM, btw. Thought I'd add that, as my friends didn't know what it was (we're British). Although, I don't think anyone says it anymore, since the only time I can remember hearing it was when I was in primary school in the mid 2000s - so it fits with the setting of the story, I suppose. Though it may have been out of date back then.  
> Anyways, thank you for reading. Part 2 will be up within a week - I'm going back to university next week and so updates will probably slow to that kind of rate once the semester actually starts, but we'll see.


	9. The Runaway Bride: Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, a bit longer than a week since I last updated. I was busying with packing for university and such, but I'm there now, and spent the whole evening/night banging out the rest of the chapter. It was a weird one, I really enjoyed writing some parts, but others seemed to drag. Anyways, enough rambling, and I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Disclaimer: some of the dialogue was written by the writers of Doctor Who.

The TARDIS landed and the Doctor ordered Ryan and Donna to get out, as smoke was pouring out the console and he didn’t want them inhaling it. They were parked on the rooftop of a tower block, giving a clear view of the whole city.

“I’m sorry for accusing you two of kidnapping me,” Donna said to Ryan as they sat down on the edge of the building, while the Doctor sorted out the TARDIS with a fire extinguisher. “It was kinda obvious that you hadn’t, what with you two wrapped up in each other.”

“’S okay,” Ryan replied quietly. “I would’ve done the same, if I was in your situation…” He trailed off.

Donna hummed noncommittally. “You know, are you sure he’s not your boyfriend? Cos I saw you hugging back then, and how you hugged just now… straight men don’t exactly hug each other like that. I’m not trying to presume anything, not really, but if you and him are, then, it’s fine, none of my business.”

Ryan smiled slightly at her. “I know what you mean, don’t worry. The Doctor doesn’t do that sort of thing,” he mumbled. He knew that people had always presumed that himself and the Doctor were a couple. That hadn’t been too much of a problem before he had transitioned, but now, they were being read as a gay couple and hence being subjected to some homophobia. Was he gay now? Ryan had never put much thought into his sexuality – he had never needed to before, and now he had almost forgotten about it, getting caught up with questioning his gender identity.

He noticed Donna shiver beside him. It was December after all, they were on a windy rooftop and Donna’s dress wouldn’t be very warm. Of course she would be cold. Ryan shrugged off his denim jacket and offered it to Donna. Donna took the jacket gratefully and wrapped it around her bare shoulders.

“Bit small, aren’t you?” Donna remarked, slightly teasing.

Ryan swallowed. He was very insecure with his height – it was one of the few things that testosterone wouldn’t be able to fix. He had voiced this concern to the Doctor before; he assured him that he wasn’t that short, and had told him that being shorter had plenty of advantages – the Doctor had even listed numerous famous cisgender men he was taller than. Ryan smiled at the memory – it hadn’t alleviated all of his height dysphoria, but it had helped.

“Funny thing is, for a spaceship, she doesn’t do that much flying,” the Doctor explained as he sat down next to Ryan, so close that their arms were pressed together. “We’d better give her a couple of hours. You two alright?”

Ryan hummed in confirmation, whereas Donna didn’t say anything, instead glancing at her watch. Ryan noticed.

“Did we miss it?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Donna replied.

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, you can book another date,” the Doctor added, trying to sound positive.

Donna nodded. “’Course we can.”

“You’ve still got the honeymoon.”

“It’s just a holiday now.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Sorry,” the Doctor said.

“Like I said to Ryan, I don’t blame you. It’s not your fault” Donna said softly.

“That’s a change,” the Doctor chuckled.

Donna paused for a moment before responding. “Wish you had a time machine.” Both Ryan and the Doctor turned to her. “Then we could go back and get it right,” she continued.

“Um, yeah… yeah,” the Doctor said slowly. “But even if I did, I couldn’t go back on someone’s personal timeline.”

“Apparently,” Ryan quickly added.

“Apparently…” the Doctor echoed. “Oh, and, you’d… better put this on,” he said, producing a golden ring from his pocket.

Ryan rolled his eyes and sighed. Again, the Doctor had completely missed the mark when it came to human social conventions.

“Oh, d’you have to rub it in?” Donna asked, annoyed.

“Those creatures can trace you,” the Doctor explained. “This is a biodamper, should keep you hidden.” He reached across Ryan to give the biodamper to Donna, who slipped it onto her left ring finger, in lieu of her wedding ring.

“So come on, then, robot Santas, what are they for?” Donna questioned.

“Oh, your basic roboscavenger. The Father Christmas stuff is just a disguise, trying to blend in. We met them last Christmas,” the Doctor answered.

“Why, what happened then?”

“Great big spaceship, hovering over London?”

“And all those people standing on roofs? You didn’t notice?” Ryan asked, frowning.

“I had a bit of a hangover,” Donna dismissed.

Ryan laughed incredulously. Even after several shots of hypervodka, courtesy of one Captain Jack Harkness, he would have definitely noticed an attempted alien invasion.

“We spent Christmas Day over there, the Powell Estate,” the Doctor nodded at the horizon. “With Ryan’s family…”

“They were your family too,” Ryan whispered, hopefully too quiet for anyone to hear. But he guessed the Doctor had, what with his ‘superior biology’, by the way he moved his hand to rest on the small of Ryan’s back. Ryan shuddered, and let his head lean on the Doctor’s shoulder.

“What did you mean, earlier; when you said you were saying goodbye to your mum?” Donna gently asked Ryan.

“Question is, what do camouflage robot mercenaries want with you?” the Doctor interrupted, saving Ryan from unwanted questions for the second time that day. “And how did you get inside the TARDIS? I dunno… what’s your job?” he asked quickly.

Ryan felt the Doctor shift next to him as he reached into his jacket, then he brandished his sonic. Ryan sighed, and gently placed his hand on the Doctor’s lower thigh, just above his knee. “Doctor,” he warned, shaking his head. “If Donna didn’t like it when you scanned her before, she’s not gonna appreciate it now, either.”

The Doctor mumbled an apology, before putting his sonic screwdriver back into his pocket and sliding his hand around to rest on Ryan’s waist, pulling him closer.

“Sorry about that, Donna,” Ryan said, turning to look at her, smiling apologetically. “Do you mind telling us about your job?”

“I’m a secretary,” Donna replied.

“What kind of secretary?” the Doctor questioned.

“I’m at H.C. Clements. It was where I met Lance,” Donna grinned. “I was temping. I mean, it was all a bit posh, really. I’d spent the last two years at a double-glazing firm. Well, I thought, I’m never gonna fit in here. And then he made me a cup of coffee. I mean, that just doesn’t happen. Nobody gets the secretaries a coffee. And Lance, he’s the Head of HR, he didn’t need to bother with me. But he was nice, he was funny. And it turns out he thought everyone else was really snotty too. So, that’s how it started, me and him. One cup of coffee – that was it.”

“When was this?” the Doctor asked.

“Six months ago.”

“Bit quick, to get married… is that right, Ryan?” he asked.

“Um, yeah,” Ryan confirmed.

“Well, he insisted,” Donna said quickly. “And he nagged and he nagged me. And he just wore me down. And then, finally, I just gave in,” she finished dramatically.

Ryan had believed everything else Donna had said, but doubted this particular tale. Donna seemed more like a nagger than a naggee.

“What does H.C. Clements do?” he asked.

“Oh, security systems. Y’know, entry codes, ID cards, that sort of thing. Ask me, it’s a posh name for a locksmiths.”

“Keys…” the Doctor mused.

“Anyway, enough of my CV. Come on, it’s time to face the consequences. Oh, this is gonna be so shaming,” Donna said. “Martian Boy can do the explaining.”

Ryan chuckled, while the Doctor protested weakly. “Yeah… I’m not from Mars…”

He jumped to his feet, offering a hand to Ryan then Donna.

“Oh, I had this great big reception all planned,” Donna sighed as she gave Ryan his denim jacket back. “Everyone’s gonna be heartbroken.”

***

Having left the TARDIS on the rooftop, they walked to Donna’s reception, which was in a fancy hotel. Unexpectedly, the party sounded like it was in full swing, as loud music blasted from the direction of the reception room. Donna huffed and stormed ahead. Inside, people were dancing and celebrating as if nothing had happened, as if the bride hadn’t unexplainably disappeared. Donna marched forward and came to a stop, crossing her arms angrily, with Ryan and the Doctor lingering behind her. Slowly, people stopped their dancing and noticed Donna. As the jovial Christmas music came to a halt, so did the last person to notice, a black man who had been dancing with a rather leggy blonde woman.

“You had the reception without me?” Donna said bluntly, her tone twisting into anger. Ryan scratched at his temple, awkward wasn’t a strong enough word to describe the situation.

“Donna, what happened to ya?” asked the man, who Ryan guessed was Lance. His longer suit jacket and waistcoat were clues.

“You had the reception _without_ me?” Donna repeated, more irate than before.

“Hello, I’m the Doctor and this is Ryan,” the Doctor said cheerfully; Ryan lifted his hand in a slight wave.

Donna turned to face them. “They had the reception without me!”

“Yes, we gathered,” the Doctor replied, in a careful, even tone.

“Well, it was all paid for, why not?” interrupted the blonde woman.

“Thank you, Nerys,” Donna hissed. Ah, so that was the infamous Nerys.

“Well, what were we supposed to do?” asked an older blonde woman as she walked towards them, wearing a patterned skirt suit and a matching fascinator. “I got your silly little message in the end. ‘I’m on Earth’ – very funny. But what the hell happened? How did you do it?” This had to be Donna’s mother.

That triggered a bombardment of questions directed towards Donna, who looked around, seemingly completely overwhelmed. She suddenly started sobbing loudly, causing everyone to cease their demanding and makes sympathetic ‘awws’. Lance stepped forwards, taking Donna into a hug. She shot the Doctor and Ryan a wink as everyone else started clapping. Ryan smirked – Donna was a good actress.

The music soon started back up, with everyone dancing once again – Donna happily with Lance. Ryan and the Doctor had settled against the bar. Ryan suddenly realised he hadn’t eaten anything yet today.

“I’m bloody starving,” he said to the Doctor. “Do you see any food anywhere?” The Doctor quickly scanned the room.

“I don’t see anything, sorry,” he replied, ducking down to Ryan’s height so he could hear him better.

“S’okay… they might have something at the bar, like they do in pubs…” He paused for a moment. “Do you still have the cash from earlier?”

“Yeah... why?” the Doctor frowned. “Won’t two pounds eighty cover it?”

“Yeah, but can I have a tenner?” Ryan smiled persuasively, resting his chin on the Doctor’s shoulder.

“You need ten pounds for a packet of crisps?” the Doctor asked, disbelievingly, as he reached into his pocket for the wad of notes.

“Nope, just getting what I’m owed,” Ryan grinned. “Queen Victoria, remember?”

“Take all of it, then,” the Doctor grumbled half-heartedly, smiling, as he placed all the cash into Ryan’s awaiting palm. Ryan picked out a singular orange note, then gave the rest back to the Doctor.

“You’ll be needing it.”

“What for?”

“So that you can buy me chips,” Ryan smiled teasingly, before slipping off towards the bartender.

He came back about a minute later, with a tube of Pringles in hand. He popped off the lid, offering some to the Doctor. He pinched a couple off the top, and they unhurriedly ate for a few minutes.

“I’m sorry about what I said earlier,” the Doctor said quietly, but just loud enough that Ryan was able to hear him.

“Doctor, what are you on about?” Ryan asked, confused.

“When I mentioned your family… I know this hasn’t been the best of days for you…”

“Doctor…” Ryan took the Doctor’s hand in his, entwining their fingers. “We can’t tiptoe around the subject of my family forever. I’ll be fine, okay?”

The Doctor sighed. “Just… make sure you make time for yourself.” He tugged Ryan into him, letting his cheek rest against Ryan’s hair. “Thought you’d be asking me for a dance,” he mumbled, gazing across the room, where numerous people were enjoying themselves.

“Nah, we don’t need to draw more attention to ourselves – I’m not exactly dressed for the occasion,” Ryan half-lied. He was aware that everyone had seen him arrive with Donna, and probably didn’t mind his clothing choice, but truthfully, he was concerned about the potential reaction caused by people witnessing two men dancing together.

The Doctor hummed in agreement. “Could I borrow your phone?” he asked.

“Sure – you know where it is.”

The Doctor untangled their fingers and put on his glasses, before slipping his hand into one of Ryan’s trouser pockets, fishing his phone out.

“Having a little poke into our friends at H.C. Clements,” the Doctor explained as he typed the query into the web browser.

“What’re you looking for?” Ryan asked, peering down at the small screen.

“Not sure exactly… company history, ownership – you know, that sort of thing. I can speed this up, though.” The Doctor pulled out his sonic and used it on Ryan’s phone. The screen flashed between webpages, before stopping on a blank screen with only a few words. H.C. CLEMENTS: Sole Prop. TORCHWOOD.

Ryan sucked in a breath, although he wasn’t completely surprised. It seemed Torchwood liked to stick their noses into all sorts of endeavours.

“That helps, but it doesn’t explain much…” the Doctor said. “We still don’t know how Donna ended up on board the TARDIS.”

Ryan hummed, letting his eyes wander across the busy room. He spotted a man in the corner, with a video camera mounted on a tripod.

He turned back to the Doctor. “There’s a guy filming over there, d’ya reckon he got Donna disappearing on video?”

The Doctor grinned. “I think there’s a good chance he did. Excellent work, Lewis.”

They ducked and weaved their way through the crowd, until they reached the videographer.

Ryan tapped him on the shoulder. “Sorry mate, but just wondering if you filmed the ceremony as well – y’know, when Donna disappeared?” he asked.

“Yeah I did – I’ll show you,” the videographer replied as he swapped out the disks. The Doctor and Ryan peered at the small screen.

“I taped the whole thing; they’ve all had a look. They said, “sell it to You’ve Been Framed” – I said more like the news,” the videographer joked. “Here we are.”

They saw Donna scream as she was engulfed in shining golden particles, before completely vanishing. Ryan was certain he had seen them before, but he couldn’t place it. The Doctor recognised them too.

“It can’t be… play it again,” the Doctor requested.

“Clever, mind. Good trick, I’ll give her that,” commented the videographer. “I was clapping.”

The Doctor inched closer to the screen, squinting as the video replayed.

“Doctor, what is that stuff?” Ryan quietly asked.

“But that looks like… Huon particles.”

“What’re Huon particles?”

“That’s impossible… that’s ancient…” The Doctor pulled off his glasses and turned to Ryan. “Huon energy doesn’t exist anymore, not for billions of years. It’s so old that…”

“So old that what?” Ryan prompted.

“It can’t be hidden by a biodamper!”

The Doctor shot off through the crowd, leaving Ryan to thank the videographer for his help and then he followed after the Doctor. He had just got to the doorway when the Doctor quite literally ran into him. They each reflexively grabbed onto the other – Ryan at the Doctor’s lapels and the Doctor at Ryan’s upper arms – and quickly apologised as they let go.

“Come on,” the Doctor urged, grabbing Ryan’s hand and pulling him towards Donna.

“Donna!” the Doctor shouted. “Donna – they’ve found you!”

“But you said I was safe!” Donna protested.

“The biodamper doesn’t work. We’ve gotta get everyone out!” the Doctor explained, looking frantically around the room.

“My god, it’s all my family…”

“Out the back door!”

Ryan and Donna hurried after the Doctor to a set of French doors, which he threw open. However, they weren’t able to escape, as a pair of Roboforms were slowly walking towards them, armed with disguised weaponry.

“Maybe not,” the Doctor decided, his teeth gritted. They ran across the room to another exit and pulled back the curtains to reveal another pair of Roboforms, but instead of a gun, one of them was holding what appeared to be a remote control.

“We’re trapped,” Donna said between heavy breaths. The Roboform raised its arms, emphasising the remote control it was carrying. Ryan and the Doctor looked back into the room, quickly trying to work out what the Roboforms were in control of. They both arrived at the answer at the same time.

“Christmas trees,” they said in unison.

“What about them?” Donna asked.

“They kill,” the Doctor replied. “Get away from the trees!” he yelled, sprinting away from the French doors.

Ryan and Donna emulated his actions, shouting commands to get to safety and shooing children away from the Christmas trees. However, no one was listening, blatantly ignoring the urgency in their voices. People tended not to make any radical actions like that unless a reason was staring at them in the face.

“Oh, for god’s sake, the men are idiots,” Donna’s mother dismissed. “What harm’s a Christmas tree gonna… oh.”

Baubles started to lift off of the tree branches and flew up, hovering over people’s heads. A chatter of wonder rippled through the crowd, the guests assuming that these were simply more special effects, part of the entertainment. Ryan thought hard about what the baubles were going to do. Last Christmas, the tree had destroyed half the flat in an attempt to rip them to shreds, so maybe spikes would burst out of the baubles.

Suddenly, the baubles started to dive to the ground and explode. The room erupted into abrupt chaos. People were screaming, running in all directions, trying to find cover under tables at the edge of the room. Ryan winced as a bauble detonated a few feet from him; finding cover seemed to be the way to go. The Doctor practically wrestled his way through the crowd, diverting slightly when he spotted Ryan making his way to the edge of the room.

“Cover your ears,” the Doctor warned, before continuing across the room towards the sound system. Ryan weaved his way to a table, diving under it. He easily spotted Donna and Lance huddled underneath a table across the room. He managed to catch sight of the Doctor, as the force of an explosion essentially threw him onto the small stage. He crawled behind the desk and peered over it, standing at full height once he saw that the room was clear. Ryan preemptively put his hands over his ears.

“Oi! Santa!” the Doctor yelled, addressing the line of Roboforms opposite him. “Word of advice. If you’re attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver…” he briefly lifted said sonic screwdriver to show the Roboforms, whilst grabbing a microphone and tossing it once in his hand. “Don’t let him near the sound system,” he spoke into the microphone.

He plunged the tip of his sonic into a port on the mixer desk. A piercing high-pitched noise was emitted from the speakers, resonating across the room. Ryan was grateful for the warning, but he still grunted in pain like others who were shrieking from the beating their eardrums were taking. Everything was shaking: decorations slipped off the walls, confetti slid along the floor away from the speakers, and the Roboforms struggled to stay on their feet – breaking apart as their masks slipped away and components flew from their faces, eventually collapsing into piles of red robes and robotic parts.

The Doctor leapt from the stage, skidding to a stop on his knees in front of the disassembled Roboforms. As he inspected them, Ryan turned his attention to some teenagers a couple of metres away, asking them if they were okay. They nodded silently, shell-shocked. Ryan smiled at them apologetically before jogging over to the Doctor.

“Look at that,” the Doctor said as he held up the remote control, sensing Ryan’s presence behind him. “Remote control for the decorations, but there’s a second remote control for the robots,” he explained as he looked over one of the golden Roboform heads.

“Something’s taken control of them?” Ryan guessed.

“Yep,” the Doctor confirmed, popping the p. “They’re not scavengers anymore.”

“Never mind all that, you’re a doctor,” Donna interrupted from next to Ryan. “People have been hurt.”

“Nah, they wanted you alive, look,” the Doctor dismissed, tossing Donna an unexploded bauble. “They’re not active now.”

“And he’s not really that kind of doctor,” Ryan said. “Not most of the time, anyway,” he added, as the Doctor was able to fix up injuries with the TARDIS’s equipment, and he had been entrusted with the very important job of monitoring Ryan’s hormone levels.

“All the same, you could help,” Donna argued, as the Doctor brought the Roboform head to his ear.

“You’ve got to think of the bigger picture,” the Doctor replied absentmindedly. “There’s still a signal!” he said, running towards the main entrance door. Ryan and Donna started to follow him, but they were stopped by Donna’s mother.

“Donna, who is he?” she asked, seemingly decided that Ryan was normal enough for her. “Who is that man?”

“Donna, come on,” Ryan quietly urged, slightly ahead of her.

Donna didn’t say anything to either of them for a few moments, torn on whether to join Ryan and the Doctor and the guaranteed danger, or stay with her family and friends, possibly putting them in danger as well. She gave one last lingering look at the scene before abruptly turning away and re-joining Ryan.

They jogged outside, and found the Doctor scanning the Roboform head with his sonic.

“There’s someone behind this, directing the roboforms,” the Doctor reiterated, mainly for Donna’s benefit.

“But why’s it me? What have I done?” Donna asked quickly.

“We’ll know when we find out who’s controlling them,” Ryan answered, trying to sound reassuring.

The Doctor agreed distractedly. “Yeah… ooh!”

“What’ve you found?” Ryan asked, as the Doctor finished scanning the head and pointed his sonic up at the sky, squinting in the bright sunlight.

“Something up there… in the sky…”

The Doctor continued to scan the sky, before grunting in annoyance.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ve lost the signal,” the Doctor answered Ryan. “Donna, we’ve got to get to your office, H.C. Clements. I think that’s where it all started.” He turned to Lance, who had wandered over to be with Donna. “Lance! Is it Lance? Lance, can you give me a lift?”

Lance looked sheepish. “Donna, could you drive, I’ve been drinking…”

Donna huffed. “Fine.”

She led them over to a tiny, blue Smart car. The Doctor and Ryan squeezed into the back seat. Ryan supposed this was one of the advantages of being short: he was able to sit in a fairly normal position whereas the Doctor had to basically fold himself up, hunched over so his head wouldn’t go through the roof and with his knees drawn up to his chest.

Ryan chuckled. “You comfy there?”

The Doctor half smiled and half grimaced. “Think I’ve been in tighter spots.”

Donna and Lance got in the front and they trundled off down the streets of Chiswick.

“Not exactly a chase, is it?” the Doctor commented sarcastically.

“Oi, there’s a speed limit,” Donna countered. “I’m not going to jail in my wedding dress.”

“It’s like driving a hairdryer…”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Doctor, shut up and let her drive.”

***

“To you lot, this might just be a locksmiths,” the Doctor explained as they ran through the reception area of H.C. Clements to an office. “But H.C. Clements was bought up 23 years ago by the Torchwood institute.” He stopped at a computer and bent over, typing quickly.

“Who’re they?” Donna asked.

“They were behind the Battle of Canary Wharf.”

“Cyberman invasion,” Ryan added, noticing Donna’s blank expression. “And loads of flying pepper-pots over London?” he prompted, following Donna’s lack of reaction.

“I was in Spain,” Donna said.

“They had Cybermen in Spain,” the Doctor responded.

“Scuba-diving.”

“That big picture, Donna, you keep missing it,” the Doctor replied, distractedly. He abruptly moved to another computer, pushing Lance out of his way. “Torchwood was destroyed, but H.C. Clements stayed in business. I think someone else came in and took over the operation,” he explained, hitting the monitor for accidental emphasis.

“You know, hitting stuff doesn’t fix it most of the time,” Ryan remarked.

The Doctor stopped what he was doing to look at Ryan. “Ah, but you said most of the time, not all of the time, hence implying that percussive maintenance has its uses,” he grinned. Ryan couldn’t argue with that logic.

Donna interrupted them. “This isn’t the time for flirting – what do they want with me?”

The Doctor stood upright to address Donna. “Somehow you’ve been dosed with Huon energy. And that’s a problem, because Huon energy hasn’t existed since the Dark Times. The only place you’d find a Huon particle is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS.”

The heart of the TARDIS… so that had been why Ryan had recognised them. First when Margaret the Slitheen had regressed into an egg, and when he had (with the help of Mickey) pulled open the TARDIS console to rescue the Doctor from the Dalek fleet.

“Y’see, that’s what happened,” the Doctor continued. “Say, that’s the TARDIS,” he grabbed a mug off a nearby desk, and then a pencil. “And that’s you. The particles inside you activated,” he elaborated, shaking the pencil and the mug. “The two sets of particles magnetised and whap!” He tossed the pencil into the mug. “You were pulled inside the TARDIS.”

“I’m a pencil inside a mug?” Donna questioned, disbelievingly.

The Doctor quickly rotated the mug, so that the pencil was spinning around inside. “Yes, you are. 4H – sums you up.”

Ryan sighed and rolled his eyes at that comment.

“Lance, what was H.C. Clements working on? Anything top secret, special operations, do not enter?” asked the Doctor as he began hacking into another computer with his sonic screwdriver.

“I don’t know, I’m in charge of personnel, I wasn’t project manager…” Lance denied, perhaps a little too quickly. Ryan didn’t fully trust him.

Lance continued, angrily. “Why am I even explaining myself? What the hell are we talking about?”

Yep, definitely suspicious, Ryan thought.

“You make keys, that’s the point…” the Doctor replied, ignoring Lance’s tone. “And look at this!”

Ryan glanced over at the monitor, which was showing a 3D model of the building.

“We’re on the third floor… underneath reception, there’s a basement.” The Doctor ran the short distance to the lift in the corner of the office, leaving the others to follow after him. “Then how come when you look on the lift, there’s a button marked lower basement? There’s a whole floor which doesn’t exist on the official plans. So, what’s down there?”

“Are you telling me this building’s got a secret floor?” Lance asked.

“No, I’m showing you this building’s got a secret floor.”

Ryan took this as a cue to join the Doctor in the lift.

“It needs a key,” Donna interjected.

Ryan grinned as the Doctor used his sonic on the button. “The Doctor’s very good with locks.”

“Right then, thanks, you two, we can handle this. See you later,” the Doctor said dismissively.

Donna snorted. “No chance, Martian. You and Ryan are the ones who keep saving my life. I ain’t letting you out of my sight.”

“Going down,” the Doctor said, resigned.

“Lance!”

“Maybe I should go to the police,” Lance stammered.

“Inside!” Donna ordered, leaving no room for disagreement. Lance practically stomped into the lift.

“To honour and obey,” the Doctor reminded, flinching as Ryan swatted his arm.

“Tell me about it, mate.”

“Oi!”

The doors slid smoothly shut, and they started the descent into the depths of H. C. Clements.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really liked writing Donna and Ryan's little conversation on the rooftop - they are turning into BFFs and I'm here for it. I also liked writing the Doctor and Ryan's conversation post reuniting Donna. It was nice to write something that contrasted with the Doctor's angsting in the show.
> 
> I want say the next chapter will be up in a week at the most, but who knows at this point. As always, thank you very much for reading, and feel free to share your thoughts.


	10. The Runaway Bride: Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got this chapter up less than a week later (just about :P). I apologise for the very slight horniness, but I don't think it's OOC (let me know if it is). Also this was edited/proofread by a dyslexic man (me) a little past his bedtime, so again, I apologise for any potential errors. As always, I hope you enjoy.  
> Disclaimer: most of the dialogue was written by the writers of Doctor Who.  
> CW: Homophobic language. Also for very strong language, just in case, though it's not that much more extreme than any swearing in previous chapters.

The lift dinged, announcing their arrival at the lower basement. They gingerly stepped out into a dank and dingy corridor, only illuminated by vibrant green lighting. It seemed that the bad guys always favoured mood lighting in their evil lairs.

Donna decided to ask the important questions. “Where are we? What goes on down here?”

“Let’s find out,” the Doctor answered.

“D’you think Mr Clements knows about this place?”

“Well, that’s how these sorts of things tend to work,” Ryan replied, pulling from previous experience. “The ones at the top control all the goings on, so yeah, he’s probably part of it.”

The Doctor shot him a proud smile, which was fully returned. He tore his gaze away, clearly searching for something.

“Ooh look, transport.”

Ryan’s eyes wandered to what had caught the Doctor’s attention; a few segways parked against a wall. But he hadn’t spotted the minor issue.

“Doctor, there’s four of us and only three segways…”

The Doctor shrugged. “So? We’ll share. It’s just like riding a motorbike, but we’re standing up instead.”

Ryan inspected the segways more closely. There wasn’t a lot of space on the small footholds, meaning they were going to be pressed together and it would be… intimate, for a lack of a better word. He inwardly sighed defeatedly and pulled the nearest segway away from the wall, offering it to the Doctor, who shook his head, indicating for Ryan to get on first. Ryan tentatively climbed on, edging his feet forwards and as close to the middle as possible, giving the Doctor as much space as he could.

The Doctor hopped on behind him, leaving virtually no space between Ryan’s back and his front. His hands rested on the controls in front of them, meaning he surrounded Ryan on nearly all sides. This was going to be an experience.

***

On reflection, the situation wasn’t at all awkward or tense, contrary to what Ryan had been expecting. It was still quite intimate, but in a cosy sort of way, like being hugged from behind.

There was a sudden burst of laughter on their left, coming from Donna. Ryan started laughing too – the whole situation was ridiculous. The Doctor also got caught up in the infectious laughter, his chuckles rumbling through his chest against Ryan’s back.

The trio howled with laughter, trying not to tumble over, while Lance watched on, confused.

***

The segways squeaked to a halt much further down the corridor, with everyone stepping off - or jumping off, in the Doctor’s case. He ran over to a heavy metal door, blatantly ignoring Torchwood’s ‘Authorised Personnel Only’ sign as he turned the stiff wheel on the door. The Doctor had never had much care for warnings to keep out, or similar.

He pulled the door open with a grunt, revealing a tall access shaft with a ladder bolted to the wall.

“Wait here, I just need to get my bearings. Don’t do anything,” the Doctor warned, pointedly looking at all of them, particularly Donna and Ryan. He turned and started to climb the ladder, but his progress was interrupted by Donna a few rungs up.

“You’d better come back.”

“Ryan’s still here, isn’t he? Provided he follows Rule Number One, that is… think of him as insurance.” Ryan grinned cheekily as the Doctor shot him a wink, before continuing up the ladder.

Donna, with an inquisitive look on her face, turned to Ryan, who was leaning in the doorway.

“What’s Rule Number One?”

“Don’t wander off,” Ryan answered with a half-smile.

He let his gaze refocus on the Doctor, who was about a third of the way up the ladder. He could practically hear Cassandra bending the Doctor’s voice into something overtly camp in order to tease him: “ _you’ve been looking; you like it_ ”. She was right, he couldn’t deny that he found the Doctor very physically attractive, and he was certainly taking advantage of the excellent view he currently had of the Doctor’s bum in those tight trousers.

Lance’s low voice pulled him out of his slightly indecent thoughts. “Donna, have you thought about this, properly? I mean, this is serious!”

Ryan turned his head to look at them; Lance was looking at Donna intensely with a worrisome expression, whilst Donna was oblivious, craning her neck to peer up at the Doctor.

Lance continued. “What the hell are we gonna do?”

Donna left her daydreaming after a long pause. “Oh, I thought July.” She smiled sweetly, then looked up at the Doctor again. Lance was left with his mouth hanging open – clearly that answer hadn’t satisfied him. This made Ryan even more suspicious of him, though he couldn’t pinpoint why.

The Doctor had reached the top of the ladder, and he opened the latch at the top with a groan of effort. The latch flipped up, illuminating the shaft with late afternoon sunlight. The Doctor hauled himself up and out, completely disappearing from sight for a few seconds, before swiftly climbing back down the ladder.

“So, where are we?” Ryan asked.

“Thames Flood Barrier!” the Doctor announced, dropping from the ladder with about six feet of rungs left. “Right on top of us. Torchwood snuck in and built this place underneath.”

“What, there’s like, a secret base hidden underneath a major London landmark?” Donna questioned.

Ryan and the Doctor shared a small smile.

“I know,” the Doctor replied. “Unheard of.”

“Yeah, never happens,” Ryan added.

The Doctor led them a little further down a corridor bathed in green light, before they came to a glass door emblazoned with the Torchwood logo.

“Ooh, look at this!” the Doctor said as they entered some kind of lab. Numerous tubes ran from the floor to the ceiling, some shining metal, others made of glass, showing off a blue-tinted bubbling liquid.

“Stunning!” the Doctor appended, admiring the set-up.

“What does it do?” Donna asked, quick to the questions as per usual.

“Particle extrusion… hold on.” The Doctor jogged over to a thinner clear tube and tapped it with his knuckles. “Brilliant. They’ve been manufacturing Huon particles. ‘Course, my people got rid of Huons, they unravel the atomic structure,” he explained as he continued to appraise the machinery attached to the piping.

“Your people? Who are they? What company do you represent?” Lance questioned.

“We’re just, er, freelancers,” Ryan said quickly.

“This lot have been rebuilding them,” the Doctor continued, walking and spinning as he lectured. “They’ve been using the river, extruding them through a flat hydrogen base so they’ve got the end result, Huon particles in liquid form.” He grabbed a vial from the side, showing Ryan and Donna - who had followed him across the lab.

“And that’s what’s inside me?” Donna enquired.

The Doctor twisted the lid of the vial, stimulating the particles inside, causing them to glow.

Suddenly, Ryan felt a burning sensation at his temples. He winced and started to rub them in an attempt to ease the pain.

“Oh my god!” Donna exclaimed beside him; she had started to shimmer in the same golden hue as the particles.

“You okay?” The Doctor was looking at him, concerned, ignoring Donna briefly.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a headache.” Ryan smiled in a way he hoped was reassuring. “Been a long day, you know.” It hadn’t – he had only been awake for a few hours.

The Doctor nodded slightly, turning his attention back to Donna. “You see, ‘cos the particles are inert, they need something to catalyse inside, and that’s you! Saturate the body and then…” he trailed off.

“Ah!” he exclaimed, indicating he had solved the mystery. “The wedding! Yes! You were getting married! That’s it!” he shouted, punching the air, then continuing his over-excited ramble. “Best day of your life, walking down the aisle – oh, your body’s a battleground! It’s a chemical war inside! Adrenalin, acetylcholine, wham go the endorphins! Oh, you’re cooking! Yeah, you’re like a walking oven! A pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away, the particles reach boiling point, shazam!”

 _Crack_. The Doctor’s increasingly rapid and high-pitched babble was halted by another of Donna’s slaps. Ryan had anticipated it, as he had noticed the growing irritation on Donna’s face.

However, thankfully his headache seemed to have subsided.

“What did I do this time?” the Doctor asked, obliviously.

“Are you enjoying this?” demanded Donna.

The Doctor wisely chose not to respond. Donna stepped in closer.

“Right, just tell me, these particles, are they dangerous? Am I safe?”

“Yes,” the Doctor said quickly. Ryan could tell he was lying – he had been on the receiving end of the Doctor’s reassuring fibs before and could recognise them in a heartbeat. Besides, he had mentioned earlier that Huon particles unravelled the atomic structure, and that didn’t sound particularly safe.

“Doctor,” Donna said quietly. “If your lot got rid of Huon particles, why did they do that?”

“Because they were deadly,” the Doctor replied in a low voice.

Donna looked like she was about to faint. “Oh my god…”

“I’ll sort it out, Donna. Whatever’s been done to you, I’ll reverse it. I don’t want to lose anyone,” the Doctor promised, letting his eyes flick over to Ryan with his last sentence.

An intercom crackled into life. “ _Ooh, she is long since lost_ ,” hissed an inhuman voice.

Suddenly, one of the lab walls creaked and groaned, sliding up to slowly reveal a huge cavernous room with a massive pit in the middle of the floor.

The unknown voice continued. “ _I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe, until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken_.”

Lines of Roboforms sans Santa gowns flanked the walls, springing to life and aiming their weapons at them. Ryan instinctively tensed up, much less than Donna though.

“Someone’s been digging,” the Doctor said nonchalantly, as he wandered towards the pit, peering down into it. “Oh, very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?”

“ _Down and down. All the way to the centre of the Earth_.”

“Really?” the Doctor asked, genuinely curious. “Seriously, what for?”

Donna confidently stepped forwards. “Dinosaurs.”

“What?” the Doctor and Ryan said in unison.

“Dinosaurs?” Donna repeated, sounding less certain.

“What are you on about, dinosaurs?” the Doctor asked, frowning.

“That film, under the earth, with dinosaurs.”

“Oh, you mean Journey to the Centre of the Earth?” Ryan suggested.

The Doctor blinked once, before giving Ryan a look of both mild annoyance and amusement.

“Just trying to help,” Donna added quickly.

The Doctor shook his head slightly. “That’s not helping.”

“ _Such a sweet trio_ ,” commented the mysterious voice.

The Doctor raised his voice. “Only a madman talks to thin air, and trust me, you don’t want to make me mad. Where are you?”

“ _High in the sky, floating so high on Christmas night_.”

“I didn’t come all this way to talk on the intercom. Come on! Let’s have a look at you!”

“ _Who are you, with such command?_ ”

“I’m the Doctor!”

“ _Prepare your best medicines, doctor-man, for you will be sick at heart!_ ”

A huge, red, spider-like creature teleported onto the other side of the pit. But instead of having a head attached to its thorax, there was a vaguely female humanoid torso, complete with a grotesque head and arms that ended with pincer-like talons, rather than hands. A sort of more fucked-up centaur, Ryan supposed. The creature hissed, spitting to intimidate them.

“Racnoss,” the Doctor stated, disbelievingly. “But that’s impossible. You’re one of the Racnoss.”

“Empress of the Racnoss,” she corrected him.

“If you’re the Empress, where’s the rest of the Racnoss?” demanded the Doctor. “Or… are you the only one?”

“Such a sharp mind.”

“That’s it, the last of your kind,” the Doctor said slowly, before switching into full lecture-mode. “The Racnoss come from the dark times, billions of years ago, billions,” he explained, leaning towards Ryan and Donna. “They were carnivores, omnivores, they devoured whole planets.”

The Empress interrupted. “Racnoss are born starving. Is that our fault?”

“So she’s gonna eat everyone on Earth?” Ryan supposed. It wasn’t the typical world domination plan, but it was a world domination plan none the less.

“They eat people?” Donna asked, disgusted.

“H. C. Clements, did he wear those, those erm, black and white shoes?” the Doctor asked Donna.

“He did. We used to laugh, we used to call him the Fat Cat in Spats,” she joked.

The Doctor silently pointed his finger. Ryan followed the line extending from his digit up towards the ceiling - thick webs were strung across it. He saw what the Doctor was pointing at; a pair of black and white shoes still attached to feet. He swallowed thickly.

“Oh my god!” Donna cried, having also spotted what remained of H. C. Clements.

“My Christmas dinner,” cackled the Racnoss.

“You shouldn’t even exist,” the Doctor scoffed. “Way back in history, the fledgling empires went to war against the Racnoss. They were wiped out!”

“Except for me.”

Ryan spotted a movement out of the corner of his eye. It was Lance, who had appeared from a door behind the Racnoss. He had been wondering where Lance was – he hadn’t noticed him slip away. He didn’t know what Lance was planning.

Lance knew that he had been spotted by the three of them, and he raised a finger to his lips.

Donna took a step forwards to directly address the Empress of the Racnoss. “But that’s what I’ve got inside me, that Huon energy thing. Oi! Look at me, lady, I’m talking!” she shouted. “Where do I fit in? How come I get all stacked up with these Huon particles? Look at me, you! Look me in the eye and tell me!”

“The bride is so feisty!” screeched the Racnoss.

Behind her, Lance was slowly approaching with an axe drawn, though Ryan didn’t believe that Lance would actually use it, his behaviour all day indicated cowardice over heroism.

“And I don’t know what you are, you big thing, but a spider’s just a spider, and an axe is an axe, now do it!” Donna finished dramatically.

Lance inched closer, axe poised, ready to strike, when the Racnoss suddenly turned to Lance, hissing threateningly. Lance froze in fear, before turning to look at them. He broke into a grin, and laughed a laugh that would have been worthy of an evil genius. Then Ryan realised what he had done.

“That was a good one,” Lance continued to laugh, dropping the axe. “Your face!”

“Lance is funny,” snickered the Empress of the Racnoss.

“What?” Donna asked, clueless.

The Doctor apologised quietly. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what? Lance don’t be so stupid. Get her!”

“God, she’s thick!” Lance spat out. “Months I’ve had to put up with her, months! A woman who can’t even point to Germany on a map!”

Ryan strongly resisted the urge to hurl insults. Fucking wanker.

“I don’t understand…” Donna said quietly.

“How did you meet him?” the Doctor prompted.

“In the office.”

“He made you coffee,” Ryan reminded her, gently.

Donna snapped round to look at him. “What?”

“Every day, I made you coffee,” Lance stated smugly.

“You had to be dosed with liquid particles over six months,” the Doctor explained, his voice full of remorse.

“He was poisoning me…”

The Doctor turned back towards Lance and the Racnoss. “It was all there in the job title. The head of human resources.”

“This time, it’s personnel,” Lance joked mockingly.

Donna shook her head in disbelief. “But… we were getting married.”

Lance shrugged. “Well, I couldn’t risk you running off. I had to say yes. And then I was stuck with a woman who thinks the height of excitement is a new flavour Pringle!”

Ryan gritted his teeth. On Donna’s other side, the Doctor was sadly bowing his head.

Lance continued his malicious taunts. “Oh, I had to sit there, and listen to all that yap yap yap. Ooh, Brad and Angelina. Is Posh pregnant? X Factor, Atkins diet, feng shui, split ends, text me, text me, text me. Dear god, the never-ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia!”

Ryan’s anger reached boiling point. “Leave her alone, you fucking cu-“

“Shut it, poof!” Lance snarled. “Don’t you think I deserve a medal?”

The Doctor growled at the use of the slur. “Oh, is that what she’s offered you? The Empress of the Racnoss? What are you, her consort?”

“It’s better than a night with her,” Lance countered. “That’s what made it easy.”

That was a low fucking blow, Ryan thought, mildly surprised that Lance was able to get any lower. Though he decided against lashing out again, instead resting a comforting hand on Donna’s shoulder.

“It’s like you said Doctor; that big picture. What’s the point of it all if the human race is nothing?” Lance asked, the Doctor’s jaw tightening as he spoke. “That’s what the Empress can give me. The chance to go out there, to see it, the size of it all. And I think you understand that, don’t you, Doctor? Even though you chose to do all that with that little faggot of yours.”

Ryan heard the Doctor exhale sharply as he clenched his own fist.

“Who is this little physician?” the Empress of the Racnoss enquired.

“She said, Martian.”

The Doctor took a deep breath, steadying himself. “Doesn’t matter where I’m from,” he dismissed lowly as he sauntered back up to the hole in the ground. “But the point is, what’s down here? The Racnoss are extinct. What’s gonna help you, four thousand miles down? That’s just the molten core of the Earth, isn’t it?”

“I think he wants us to talk,” Lance mocked.

“I think so too,” the Racnoss added.

“Well, tough. All we need is Donna.”

“Kill this chattering little doctor-man and his yellow boy!” commanded the Racnoss.

“Don’t you hurt them!” Donna yelled, protectively spreading her arms in front of Ryan and the Doctor.

“No, no, it’s alright,” the Doctor said calmly.

“No, I won’t let them!” Donna insisted.

“At arms!” ordered the Empress of the Racnoss, and the Roboforms cocked their guns.

“Ah, now, except…” the Doctor began, his hands raised in a pseudo-surrender.

“Take aim!”

“Well, I just wanna point out the obvious…”

“They won’t hit the bride, they’re such very good shots,” the Racnoss said in mock reassurance, enunciating the latter clause.

“J-j-just hold on. Hold on just a tick, just a tiny little… just a, a er, tick. If you think about it, the particles activated in Donna and drew her inside my spaceship. So, reverse it, and the spaceship comes to her.” The Doctor pulled out the vial of Huon particles and twisted it.

Ryan winced at the sudden throb in his skull. He heard the Racnoss command the Roboforms to open fire, and bullets rattled against the TARDIS which had materialised around them, just in time.

“And off we go!” the Doctor said, assuming his position at the console, setting the TARDIS to dematerialise. “Oh, Donna – d’you know what you said before, about a time machine? Well, we lied. And now we’re gonna use it. We need to find out what the Empress of the Racnoss is digging up. If something’s buried at the planet’s core, then it must have been there since the beginning. That’s just brilliant – molto bene! I’ve always wanted to see this.”

Ryan refocused on his surroundings, the pain gone. Donna was uncharacteristically quiet, tears rolling down her cheeks, trying not to burst out into sobs. Ryan shifted to sit next to her on the jump seat and placed a gentle arm around her shoulders, hoping to offer some comfort and sympathy.

The movement caught the Doctor’s eye. “Ryan, Donna, we’re-“

His jaw fell slack once he saw the warning look Ryan was giving him. He nodded once in understanding; Ryan’s lips twitched into the slightest of smiles as thanks.

The TARDIS console room fell silent, other than the mechanical groaning of the engines. The Doctor broke it.

“We’ve arrived… d’you two wanna see?”

“Suppose,” Donna sighed.

The Doctor made eye contact with Ryan, awaiting his response. Ryan gave him a sad smile, tilting his head towards Donna. He always wanted to see whatever the Doctor had to offer, but he was more concerned with Donna’s wellbeing at that present moment.

The Doctor spun the monitor around and peered at it, frowning slightly. “Hold on, scanner’s a bit small. Maybe your way’s best, Donna.” He half skipped down the ramp, leaning against the handrail as he waited by the door.

“Come on, Donna,” Ryan said quietly, lightly rubbing her on the shoulder. She sighed, resigned, and Ryan followed her towards the doors.

“No humans have ever seen this. You two’ll be the first,” the Doctor added.

“All I wanna see is my bed,” Donna replied stubbornly.

“It’s okay Donna, the sooner this is over with, the sooner you’ll see your bed,” Ryan said. Truthfully, he wouldn’t mind seeing his bed either.

The Doctor put his hands on the door handles. “Ryan Tyler, Donna Noble, welcome… to the creation of the Earth.”

He pulled open the doors, stepping back to allow Ryan and Donna to stand in the doorway. Ryan’s jaw dropped at the sight before him. The spectrum of gas clouds and the various rocks around them were stunning. These kinds of views were his favourite and never failed to take his breath away.

The Doctor knew this too. He sidled up behind Ryan and snaked his arms around his waist, gently pulling them together. Ryan sighed in contentment, letting his head loll back into the crook of the Doctor’s neck. He brought his arms up to his stomach to rest over the Doctor’s, slipping a hand into one of his.

“We’ve gone back 4.6 billion years. There’s no solar system, not yet. Only dust and rocks and gas.” Ryan allowed himself to get lost in the Doctor’s soothing voice, feeling the vibrations reverberate directly from his chest.

The Doctor lifted the hand that wasn’t entangled with Ryan’s, pointing to a bright light in the distance. “That’s the sun, over there. Brand new. Just beginning to burn.”

“Where’s the Earth?” Donna asked. Ryan had almost forgotten she was there.

“In the dust.”

“Puts the wedding in perspective. Lance was right, we’re just… tiny.”

“No, but that’s what you do, the human race, make sense out of chaos.” Ryan could hear the proud smile in the Doctor’s voice. “Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calendars. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it’s being observed.”

Ryan remembered something from his secondary school physics lessons. “We came out of all this, right? Like, everything on Earth just from this gas and dust and stuff.”

“Yep, you’re right. Isn’t that brilliant?” the Doctor said softly, rubbing Ryan’s thumb with his own.

They fell quiet, simply watching the Earth form.

“I think that’s the Isle of Wight,” Donna commented as a particularly large rock drifted past. The trio shared a light chuckle at Donna’s quip.

The Doctor resumed his informative monologue. “Eventually, gravity takes hold. Say, one big rock, heavier than the others, starts to pull other rocks towards it. All the dust and gas and elements get pulled in, everything piling in, until you get…”

“The Earth,” Donna quietly answered.

“But the question is, what was that first rock?”

An oddly shaped, pointed rock appeared from behind a gas cloud. It looked a little too precise to have formed naturally.

“Wassat?” Ryan mumbled.

“The Racnoss,” the Doctor breathed out. He quickly squeezed Ryan’s hand before untangling himself from their embrace, then he ran back up to the console. “Hold on, the Racnoss are hiding from the war. What’s it doing?”

In front of them, the rocks and dust and gas started to move faster and faster, converging on the Racnoss’ ship.

“Exactly what you said!” Donna answered.

The Doctor ran to re-join them. “Oh! They didn’t just bury something at the centre of the Earth – they became the centre of the Earth. The first rock.”

A sudden explosion from behind them shook the TARDIS, knocking them off-balance. Ryan yelped as his headache came back with a vengeance.

“What was that?”

“The hell?”

“Trouble,” the Doctor answered, slamming the TARDIS’s doors shut. They stumbled back up the ramp; Ryan made a beeline for the jump seat, as the pain was becoming too much to bear.

“What the hell’s it doing?” Donna yelled, grabbing onto the console in an effort to stay upright.

The Doctor stumbled around the console, using at least three limbs at any one time to control the TARDIS. “That little trick of mine, particles pulling particles. Well, it works in reverse. They’re pulling us back!”

“Well, can’t you stop it? Hasn’t it got a handbrake? Can’t you reverse, or warp, or beam or something?”

“Oh, backseat driver,” the Doctor grumbled.

“Doctor, what about the extrapolator?” Ryan suggested, his voice coming out far weaker than he would have liked.

“Of course!” the Doctor exclaimed. He pulled it out from under the console, and plonked it on top. “Can’t stop us, but should give us a good bump! Now!” He whacked the extrapolator with his mallet, causing the time rotor to glide up and down, indicating dematerialisation.

The TARDIS landed and the Doctor ushered them out into another corridor, this one bathed in an eerie blue light.

“We’ve gone about two hundred yards to the right. Come on!” the Doctor shouted, turning right and breaking into a sprint, leaving Ryan and Donna to trail after him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! University properly starts for me on Monday, so updates will probably become less frequent, or chapters may be a bit shorter (though they have been longer for The Runaway Bride - I wasn't intending on that, it just kind of happened). Again, thank you, leave any comments you may have, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!


	11. The Runaway Bride: Part IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took like 2 weeks, I got distracted by uni work and finally picked up Pokemon Sword, so also got distracted by that as well. Not completely happy with this chapter either, but I wanted to get this story wrapped up. So here we go, final chapter, I hope you enjoy.  
> Disclaimer: some of the dialogue was written by the writers of Doctor Who.

The Doctor stopped at another door tucked into the wall. Ryan’s head was pounding and he was gasping for breath. They hadn’t run very far – this should have been easy for him, but he put the exhaustion down to some weird side-effect of his sudden headaches. He staggered towards the wall, bracing himself against it as he tried to refill his oxygen-deprived lungs.

“Well, what do we do?” Donna asked, sounding nearly as out of breath as Ryan felt.

“I don’t know! I’m making it up as I go along,” the Doctor replied. “But trust me, I’ve got a history. Haven’t I, Ryan?”

Ryan grunted in response, before he felt his legs about to give way. He twisted around so his upper back was pressed against the breezeblock wall, and he slid down to the floor.

Donna gasped. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, just… tired,” Ryan breathed out, before cradling his face in his palms, elbows resting on his thighs. “Just… do what you need to do,” he added, feeling the Doctor’s hard gaze on him.

Donna considered this, pausing for a moment. “But I still don’t understand; I’m full of particles, but what for?”

“There’s a Racnoss web at the centre of the Earth,” the Doctor started to rapidly explain. “But my people unravelled their power source, the Huon particles ceased to exist but the Racnoss were stuck. They’ve just taken hibernation for billions of years, frozen, dead, kaput! So you’re the new key, brand-new particles, living particles. They need you to open it. And you have never been so quiet. Oh!”

The Doctor’s sudden exclamation shook Ryan to attention, and he looked up from the damp concrete floor.

“Huh? Where’s Donna gone?” he mumbled.

“Roboforms must have taken her,” the Doctor replied, before crouching down to face Ryan. “I’m going to need you to go back to the TARDIS.”

“I’m not going – I thought we were done with you sending me away!” Ryan protested.

The Doctor inhaled deeply. “Look, Ryan – this is the third time you’ve had this headache, and I don’t think its just a headache – in fact, I think it’s something more than that, and I’ve got a good idea what it could be. Don’t worry, if it was going to kill you, you’d be dead already,” he said offhandedly, his face having slipped into a manic grin which he often used to disguise his real emotions.

“What?” Ryan hissed. “Why the hell are you telling me that?”

“Um, I don’t know. Reassurance?” the Doctor suggested, not even sounding convinced himself. Ryan opened his mouth to argue, but the Doctor cut back in before he could get a word out. “Please, Ryan – we’ll talk about this later, okay?”

Ryan nodded numbly with shock; the Doctor was never one for ‘talking about things later’.

“I’m not going to needlessly risk someone that -“ The Doctor cut himself off, just like he had all those months ago, outside that café.

“Someone that what?”

Applying his usual technique of simply ignoring questions he didn’t want to answer, the Doctor jumped back up, breaking eye contact as he did so. Ryan heard the sonic screwdriver buzzing as he carefully got back to his feet. The Doctor pulled the door open, revealing a Roboform, which immediately cocked its gun. He quickly reacted, using his sonic to disable it. The Doctor turned back to Ryan with a goofy grin on his face.

“Do you know what I’ve got?”

“What’ve you got?” Ryan replied, trying his best to mirror the Doctor’s smile.

The Doctor plucked the black robe off the lifeless Roboform. “A disguise!”

“So, what, you wear it so you blend in, and get close to the Racnoss, and then what?”

The Doctor sniffed. “Haven’t really thought about it. Well, I’ve got a couple of ideas. Well, more like a vague plan A followed by a vague plan B. Well, when I say vague, I mean –“

Ryan cut off the oncoming ramble. “Doctor,” he warned.

The Doctor threw the robe over his pinstriped suit. “Let me take you back to the TARDIS, then we’ll get this all sorted.”

Ryan huffed. “I’m not that weak, I can walk back myself.”

Wordlessly, the Doctor bent over and picked up Ryan in a fireman’s carry. Ryan scowled in annoyance as the Doctor jogged the short distance to the TARDIS.

“I was going this way anyway,” the Doctor said he lowered Ryan back down to his feet. “And you’re not weak.”

His gaze lingered on Ryan for a moment before he flew down the corridor.

Sighing, Ryan slipped into the TARDIS and strolled aimlessly in the console room.

“What does he expect me to do now? I don’t even know how long he’s going to be…”

The pitch of the TARDIS’s background hum shifted into something that could be described as sympathetic. Ryan had always found the TARDIS’s subtle presence comforting, despite the concept of a sentient spaceship being a bit difficult to grasp at first, even if you ignored the part about it also being a time machine that happened to be bigger on the inside.

Food. Making a sandwich. That was Ryan was going to do with himself; the Pringles he had eaten earlier hadn’t done much for his appetite, and his mum always suggested sandwiches for a quick snack.

He stilled at the memories. It was just earlier today that he saw his mum (for the final time), but with the day they were having, it felt like weeks ago. Ryan swallowed down the tears; he could cry himself to sleep later.

He soon found himself in the galley. As he was about to open the fridge door, his headache hit him at full force, pain ricocheting through his skull. He stumbled over to the sink, feeling like there was a good chance he was going to vomit. Ryan took great, heaving breaths. The ringing in his ears was getting louder and louder and why was it getting dark? Those were his final thoughts as everything faded to black.

He didn’t feel himself hit the floor.

***

The Doctor weaved through corridors, trying to find another entrance into the Racnoss’s huge room. He needed to get this done quick, ensuring that he rescued Donna (and Lance also, he supposed) before it was too late, and then stop the Empress of the Racnoss. And then he could get back to Ryan and run a few tests to confirm his theories. Then they could watch a film or something, or whatever else Ryan wanted to do. Something comforting, in the wake of his final loss of Jackie. The Doctor had been trying to soothe him all day – humans responded well to comforting touches.

The Doctor found a way in, just as the Huon particles were purged from Donna and Lance, who were strung up in the web on the ceiling. He steadily and stealthily made his way around to a staircase. He stopped and watched numbly as the Empress sliced away the threads that held Lance in place, leaving him to plummet to his death. Lance had been incredibly manipulative towards Donna and had said some disgusting things to Ryan, but the Doctor supposed (albeit slightly begrudgingly) that those crimes didn’t carry a death sentence.

“My children are climbing towards me and none shall stop them!” proclaimed the Empress of the Racnoss, as the Doctor ascended the stairs, being careful to keep his motions neutral and somewhat robotic. “So you might as well unmask, my clever little doctor-man,” she cackled.

Damn it. The Doctor tilted his head inquisitively. “Oh well, nice try,” he sighed, before throwing off the robe and mask, then reaching into his jacket for his sonic screwdriver. “I’ve got you, Donna,” he called as he started to use the sonic to break apart the Racnoss’s web.

Donna gasped and squeaked in alarm as the web loosened around her. “I’m gonna fall!” she cried.

“You’re gonna swing!” the Doctor insisted as the web completely broke apart, other than one thread, which carried Donna down and over the pit, with her holding on for dear life and screaming all the way across.

“I’ve got you!” the Doctor shouted, holding his arms out to catch Donna, but soon found out that he had slightly miscalculated. Donna crashed into something below him with a loud bang, followed by several clangs.

The Doctor winced. “Ooh, sorry,” he apologised as he leaned over the railing – Donna was flat on her back, surrounded by shreddings of web.

“Thanks. For nothing,” Donna snarked, picking herself off of the floor.

“The doctor-man amuses me,” hissed the Empress.

The Doctor addressed her. “Empress of the Racnoss, I give you one last chance. I can find you a planet, I can find you and your children a place in the universe to co-exist. Please, take that offer and end this now.”

“These men are so funny!”

“What’s your answer?”

“Oh, I’m afraid I have to decline,” laughed the Empress of the Racnoss.

The Doctor inhaled deeply. “I’m sorry.”

The Racnoss laughed harder in response. “At arms!” she commanded. The Roboforms lifted their guns.

“Take aim!” The guns were cocked.

“And…”

“Relax,” said the Doctor as he pressed a button on the controller for the Roboforms, which was deep in one of his pockets. The Roboforms drooped over as they powered down.

Donna looked around her. “What did you do?”

“Guess what I’ve got, Donna?” He pulled out the controller, showing off. “Pockets!”

“How did that fit in there?” Donna asked.

“They’re bigger on the inside,” the Doctor replied, enigmatically.

“Roboforms are not necessary,” the Empress of the Racnoss cut it, agitated. “My children may feast on Martian flesh.”

“Oh, but I’m not from Mars.”

“Then where?”

The Doctor swallowed. “It’s long since gone. Gallifrey,” he said quietly, full of remorse.

This angered the Empress of the Racnoss further. “They murdered the Racnoss!”

“I really am so, so sorry.”

The Doctor hesitated as he reached into his pocket for some of the explosive baubles he had picked up at Donna’s reception. Once again, he had an almost impossible choice to make. Commit genocide, or let humanity be wiped out. He thought about what Ryan would tell him to do. Probably to try to persuade the Empress again. That’s the kind of man Ryan was, far kinder and more compassionate than he was. A second chances sort of man.

The Doctor had made his choice.

He tossed the baubles into the air, and sent them away down various exits, away from the where the TARDIS was. Having taken into account the explosive power of the baubles and the volume of the room, he set off the absolute minimum number of bombs to drown the Empress and her children. Water rushed into the chamber, scarcely drowning out the Racnoss’s cries of terror. It wasn’t as if they wouldn’t haunt his dreams later.

Ryan. He suddenly remembered. He needed to get back to him, to see if he was okay after the Huon particles had been purged.

“Donna, come on,” he yelled as he ran down the stairs towards Donna. He led her out of the huge room and towards the TARDIS. He didn’t look back.

The Doctor anxiously opened the doors to the TARDIS and quickly scanned the console room. It was empty.

"Ryan?" he called. There was no response.

He dropped any pretence of a calm demeanour and shot off down the main corridor, leaving a bewildered Donna behind. She could follow if she wanted, he supposed. Without prompting, the TARDIS flashed him an image of the galley.

He barged into the galley in a blind panic, and he could have sworn his hearts stopped when he saw Ryan lying unconscious on the floor.

***

"Ryan... Ryan... wake up, please..."

Ryan groaned. Why did the Doctor always insist on waking him up so early?

He opened his eyes and immediately shut them again, wincing at the bright light. He opened his eyes again, more slowly this time, and made out Doctor's concerned face leaning over him.

"What... happened?" he asked groggily, moving to push himself upright.

The Doctor didn't answer right away, instead steadying Ryan into a sitting position, with his back against a cabinet. The Doctor shifted so he was sat in front of Ryan, and he stared at him intensely.

"What's your name?" the Doctor asked slowly.

"Huh, why're you asking me that?" Ryan asked, confused.

"Concussion check, or at least part of it, the sonic can handle the rest," the Doctor answered. "Name please."

"Ryan Peter Tyler."

"Where are you from?"

"London." The Doctor raised an eyebrow; obviously the answer wasn't comprehensive enough. "Peckham, the Powell Estate," Ryan added.

"Parents' names?" the Doctor questioned, fetching his sonic screwdriver from his jacket.

"Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler and Peter Alan Tyler."

The Doctor nodded and started to scan Ryan with his sonic, running it carefully around Ryan's head.

"Where are we?" the Doctor asked distractedly.

"The galley in the TARDIS."

The Doctor sighed in relief and shifted away, kneeling so his legs were tucked underneath him. "No sign of concussion, or any other head injury for that matter. You might find you're a bit bruised later though."

Ryan could see the exact moment that the Doctor threw away his detached persona and was immediately pulled into a fierce hug. Ryan returned it the best he could; their positioning on the tiled floor made it a bit awkward.

"Doctor, what happened?" Ryan mumbled over his shoulder.

The Doctor moved out of their embrace and sat beside Ryan, his long legs stretched in front of him. He took Ryan's left hand in his right and let them rest in the small space between them.

"What can you remember?" he gently asked.

Ryan paused for a moment. "Well, um, you dropped me off by the TARDIS, and I thought some food would make me feel better, so I was gonna make myself a sandwich. Then as soon as I got in here, my headache came back, and it was so bloody painful, felt like I was gonna throw up. Then I dunno, passed out, I guess."

The Doctor didn't say anything, but just hummed in acknowledgement.

"You know why it happened to me, don't you?" Ryan closely watched the Doctor's face for a tell.

The Doctor flicked his eyes over to him. “I need to run some tests on you in the infirmary, but I’ve got a basic theory,” he said quietly, but firmly.

“So it’s all over then?”

“Yes.”

Ryan didn’t miss the slight remorse in that singular syllable.

“Where’s Donna?”

“Oh she’s, um –“

“Bloody hell! Does this place go on forever?” Donna interrupted. “Oh.” She stopped in the doorway when she saw them sat close together on the floor. “Are you okay, Ryan?” she asked.

The Doctor let go of Ryan’s hand and jumped to his feet, then helped Ryan up. “Oh, he’s fine now,” he said quickly. “Now then, Donna, let’s get you home.”

***

“There you go, home sweet home,” the Doctor said he followed Donna out of the TARDIS. Ryan stayed standing against the door frame.

“You know those particle thingies, am I safe?” Donna asked.

The Doctor quickly scanned her with his sonic. “All the Huon particles have gone. No damage, you’re fine.”

“I suppose that’s one good thing,” Donna shrugged. “I missed my wedding, lost my job, and became a widow on the same day. Sort of.”

Ryan had forgotten about Lance. “He… died? I’m sorry for your loss,” he said quietly.

“I couldn’t save him,” the Doctor said lowly.

Donna nodded. “He deserved it.” She reconsidered her words once she saw the looks the Doctor and Ryan were giving her. “No, he didn’t. Better get inside,” she sighed. “They’ll be worried.”

“Best Christmas present they could have,” the Doctor smiled.

“Thought you said you hate Christmas,” Ryan interjected.

“Yes, I do,” Donna confirmed.

“Even if it snows?” The Doctor reached past Ryan and flicked a switch inside the TARDIS, sending a burst of light into the night sky like a firework. It exploded with a small bang and snow lazily drifted down. Donna laughed in delight, whereas Ryan simply snorted.

“What?” the Doctor squeaked.

“You’ve got a button just for making it snow!” Ryan laughed and swatted the Doctor’s arm. “Show-off,” he teased.

The Doctor sniffed. “Well, it’s just basic atmospheric excitation.”

Donna smiled at their antics. “Merry Christmas.”

“You too.”

“And you.”

“What’re you gonna do now?” Ryan asked.

“Not getting married, for starters,” sighed Donna. “And I’m not gonna temp anymore. I dunno, travel. See a bit more of Planet Earth. Walk in the dust. Just… go out there and do something.”

Ryan smiled encouragingly and gave the Doctor the same look.

“Well, you could always come with us,” the Doctor suggested.

“No,” Donna dismissed quickly.

“Okay,”

“But I can’t!”

“Donna, don’t worry about it, honestly,” Ryan said reassuringly.

“No, but really. I mean, everything we did today… d’you live your life like that?”

“Not all the time, trouble’s just the bits in between,” the Doctor said, sharing a small grin with Ryan.

“I don’t think it is. And I couldn’t,” Donna said, shaking her head. “I mean, there was all that danger, and you looked so terrified when you got us out of there. And then you made it snow! I dunno, it’s all too scary and weird for me. Although, tell you what I will do – Christmas dinner. Come on!”

Ryan swallowed, feeling the Doctor’s eyes on him. “Sorry, it’s just a bit… too soon, I suppose.” He felt the Doctor’s hand in his, and intertwined their fingers.

Donna smiled softly and nodded in understanding. “Am I ever gonna see you two again?”

“If we’re lucky,” the Doctor replied.

“Just promise me one thing. Look after each other – I think you both need it.”

“Yeah,” said the Doctor quietly as he gave Ryan’s hand a squeeze. “Thanks then, Donna. Good luck. And just… be magnificent.”

“I think I will, yeah. Goodbye, Doctor, Ryan.”

“Goodbye.”

“See ya,” Ryan grinned, giving a slight wave, before the Doctor tugged him back into the TARDIS.

***

The Doctor gestured at the examination bench in the infirmary. “Lie down for me.”

Ryan did as he was told. “It’s Huon particles, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Um, yeah,” the Doctor replied distractedly, running his fingers through his hair as he gathered various pieces of medical equipment. “Or at least, that’s what I think.”

Ryan waited in silence as the Doctor took various samples of blood and tissue from the inside of his cheek, in addition to a whole multitude of scans. The Doctor scrunched his face in concentration as he interpreted the results on a computer. Suddenly, he exhaled sharply and took off his glasses, folding them up with a snap and shoved them into his pocket.

Ryan sat up and swung his legs around so they were dangling off the edge of the bench. “What is it?”

The Doctor walked over and sat down in a chair in front of Ryan and looked him in the eye. “What can you remember from the Game Station?”

Ryan hummed in thought. “Not much, though I know what you told me. How I looked into the heart of the TARDIS, absorbed the Time Vortex and became the Bad Wolf, then, I dunno, atomised them. Then you took it out of me, and that caused you to regenerate.”

The Doctor nodded. “Do you remember what I said earlier? About how Huon particles are only found in the heart of the TARDIS?”

“Yeah… so I still have Huon particles in me? That’s what caused the headaches and stuff?”

The Doctor swallowed, his Adam’s Apple bobbing up and down. “Yes. I thought I had taken it all out of you, but I hadn’t. Somehow, some of the Huons became a part of you, so every time other Huon particles were manipulated in some way, like when I used them to bring the TARDIS to us, the Huons in you responded as well, which caused your headaches.”

“And when I passed out…?”

“That must have been when the Empress of the Racnoss purged the particles from Donna. Trying to actually pull the Huon particles out of you when they’ve integrated into your biology would be incredibly painful, and could just cause you to fall unconscious. Which you did.”

“Doctor,” Ryan began uncertainly. “How do you mean, integrated into my biology? And you said they were deadly, so how come I’m not dead?”

The Doctor broke eye contact and looked down at his feet. “I don’t know how, but you’ve undergone a slight genetic mutation. Your cells are regenerating much more efficiently, so you’re healing faster and aging slower. The TARDIS won’t tell me how long your lifespan will be, but it’s going to be a lot longer than the lifespan of your average human.”

That was a lot for Ryan to process. At least he’d be able to stay with the Doctor a lot longer before he withered away and died, as the Doctor had so eloquently phrased it. Suddenly, he recalled what his mother had said to him on that fateful day, before they had arrived at Torchwood. “Am I still human?”

“Yep. One hundred percent Homo sapien, but better. Just more enhanced, I suppose.”

Ryan reached out to take the Doctor’s hand. “Still a stupid ape, then,” he joked.

The Doctor smiled slightly and moved to sit next to Ryan on the examination bench. “I believe there was something we were going to talk about.”

Ryan grinned. He couldn’t believe the Doctor was actually doing this. “Yes, there is.”

“I hope you understand why I did what I did,” the Doctor began, rubbing Ryan’s thumb with his own. “I knew there was a good chance you would be in further pain, and I didn’t want to risk you getting hurt. I know there’s always a risk of you getting hurt when there’s trouble, and I said I wasn’t going to send you away anymore, but please forgive me.”

Ryan considered what the Doctor had said, and couldn’t find it in him to be angry with him. “Forgiven.” He smiled softly. The Doctor returned it with a grin and happily nudged him.

“What do you want to do now?”

“Actually eat something and just relax,” Ryan chuckled. “By the way, you never said what happened with the Racnoss.”

The Doctor swallowed hard and his expression sobered. “I had to kill her and her children.”

Ryan struggled for words. He knew the Doctor would have made the right choice, even if that was the resulting outcome. “I’m sorry,” he managed to say.

“I gave her the opportunity to go somewhere else,” the Doctor mumbled.

Ryan shuffled closer to him, and brought his other hand around to rest on the Doctor’s forearm. “I don’t doubt that you did. It’s like you said, it’s just standing up and making a decision ‘cos no one else will.”

The Doctor relaxed at Ryan’s words. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Ryan briefly squeezed his hand. “Come on, media room. I wanna watch a film.”

“Want me to get the popcorn?”

“Have we got any of the chocolate and salted caramel stuff? Or did we eat it all?”

“Think we’ve still got some.”

***

“Your popcorn sir, as requested.” The Doctor placed a large bowl of popcorn on the coffee table with a flourish.

Ryan smiled at the gendered term. “Cheers,” he said, as he flicked through Netflix looking for a film. It was still a bit weird, seeing what he recognised as a DVD rental service transformed into on-demand films and TV that he could watch instantly and didn’t have to wait a week for.

“Can’t find anything?”

Ryan sighed and leant back into the over-stuffed cushions of the sofa. “I was feeling like Love Actually, but I’m trying to find something else ‘cos I know you don’t like rom-coms.”

The Doctor sat down on the sofa and threw his arm around the back of it. “That was the previous me; I think I like them now.”

Ryan frowned. “Really? You never said.”

The Doctor shrugged. “You never asked.” He gently pried the remote from Ryan’s hand and navigated to Love Actually. As the opening credits rolled, Ryan grabbed a fistful of popcorn and snuggled into the Doctor’s side as he wrapped his arm tighter around Ryan’s shoulders.

***

The ending credits faded into silence, and the Doctor glanced down at the young man who was dozing beside him. He gently nudged him awake. “Think it’s time for bed, mister.”

Ryan nervously bit his lip. “Could you stay with me? Just for tonight?” he asked in a small voice.

The Doctor hesitated. They had shared beds before, but that was only when they had no other options. In any other circumstance, that would be crossing a line. Actually, forget crossing it, that would be painting over the metaphorical line with Tipp-Ex and denying it ever existed. But Ryan had lost his mother properly and for the final time. He could make an exception. For Ryan, he could always make an exception.

“Okay,” he smiled.

***

Ryan apprehensively opened his ensuite door and spotted the Doctor lounging on his bed. His jacket and tie had been removed and his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his Converse had been kicked off into the corner of the room.

The Doctor patted the other side of the bed and draped the covers over them as Ryan gingerly slipped in beside him. Ryan leaned over to flick off the bedside lamp, and the room was flooded in darkness. He fumbled under the sheets to find the Doctor’s hand.

“Do you want to talk about Jackie?” the Doctor murmured.

“’S just I’m gonna miss her so much,” Ryan whispered. He shuddered and let his tears fall freely, not bothering to cover up his sobs. The Doctor rolled onto his side and slipped his arm around Ryan’s waist, pulling him in closer. He tucked Ryan’s head under his chin, as Ryan clutched at his shirt. He continued to hold him, soothing him as he eventually drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, and sticking with me throughout the story. I did like thinking about how the Doctor would have behaved differently, as he is in a much better mental state than he would be otherwise, and I hope it came through. The Doctor and Ryan's adventures will continue in my Series 3 rewrite, Differences. I hope to get the first chapter up in a week, but I think two may be more realistic. Again, many thanks to everyone who has followed the series so far.


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